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I t's official: Penn State has been chosen to host the U.S. Olympic wrestling trials next year. The trials will take place April 4-5 at the Bryce Jordan Center, with Penn State serving as the local organizing com- mittee. The announcement of PSU's se- lection was made Sept. 16 by USA Wrestling. The champions from the Olympic trials will become eligible to represent the United States at the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo Aug. 2-8. The competition will be held in the 18 Olympic weight classes in wrestling, which include six weight classes in men's freestyle (57 kg, 65 kg, 74 kg, 86 kg, 97 kg, 125 kg), women's wrestling (50 kg, 53 kg, 57 kg, 62 kg, 68 kg, 76 kg) and Greco- Roman (60 kg, 67 kg, 77 kg, 87 kg, 97 kg, 130 kg). The first day of the trials will include start of the Challenge Tournament in all 18 weight classes. Included in Satur- day's action will be the Challenge Tour- nament finals, which will determine one athlete in each weight class who ad- vances to the Final X Championship Se- ries on Sunday. On day two, all 18 best-of-three Final X Championship Series will be held, with those matches determining the U.S. Olympic team trials champions in each weight class. This series will feature the top seed and the Challenge Tournament champion, as determined by the 2020 Olympic Games team selection proce- dures. In addition, the completion of the consolation rounds of the Challenge Tournament will take place on Sunday. The BJC has already established itself as a historic wrestling venue. It served as the site of the 1999 NCAA championships, during which future Penn State head coach Cael Sanderson won the first of his NCAA titles. In addition, one of Sander- son's Penn State assistants, Casey Cun- ningham, claimed the 157-pound crown at that same event. The Bryce Jordan Center was also the site of the 1998 and 2009 Big Ten championships and will again serve as the host site of the confer- ence tournament in March 2021. The top four (and six of the top 10) all- time NCAA wrestling dual meet atten- dance records indoors have been set at the BJC, including the all-time indoor record of 15,998, who saw Penn State down Iowa, 28-13, on Feb. 10, 2018. That record crowd is the largest to ever witness a Penn State athletic event not held in Beaver Stadium. University Park becomes only the 10th American city to host the Olympic wrestling trials since USA Wrestling be- came the sport's national governing body in 1983. The only previous time the event was held in Pennsylvania was in 1992, when the U.S. freestyle trials took place in Pittsburgh. This will be the fifth consecutive team trials in which all three Olympic wrestling teams will be determined at the same time, with men's freestyle, women's freestyle and Greco-Roman all featured in the event. The previous trials in which all three teams were determined were in In- dianapolis (2004), Las Vegas (2008) and Iowa City (2012, 2016). Penn State is one of the most successful programs in collegiate wrestling history, having won nine NCAA team titles, in- cluding eight in the past nine seasons under the guidance of Sanderson, a 2004 Olympic freestyle gold medalist. ■ Penn State selected to host 2020 Olympic trials W R E S T L I N G The Nittany Lion wrestling team, winner of eight of the past nine NCAA championships including the past four in a row, now knows the times of its nine Big Ten duals. In ad- dition, six of Penn State's nine con- ference contests will be live national television broadcasts. Penn State also locked down the start time for two road nonconference duals. Penn State's Big Ten opener against Illinois on Friday, Jan. 10, in Rec Hall starts at 7 p.m. The Nittany Lions then host Northwestern two days later on Sunday, Jan. 12, in a 2 p.m. dual. Penn State's :rst national TV dual will originate from Rec Hall, when the Nittany Lions host Rutgers on Sunday, Jan. 19. The Lions and Scarlet Knights will battle at 5 p.m. in a dual that airs live nationally on ESPNU. The Nittany Lions head to Nebraska for a dual on Friday, Jan. 24, that be- gins at 7 p.m. ET (6 p.m. local) and airs live on the Big Ten Network. A week later, Penn State's meeting at Iowa on Friday, Jan. 31, also airs live on BTN and begins at 9 p.m. Eastern (8 p.m. local). Penn State's Big Ten road trip to Wisconsin and Minnesota will also air live on the Big Ten Network. The Lions visit Wisconsin on Friday, Feb. 7, for a 9 p.m. (8 p.m. local) dual that BTN will carry. Two days later, Penn State is at Minnesota at 2 p.m. East- ern (1 p.m. local) in another BTN live broadcast. The last of Penn State's :nal six national broadcasts will take place in the Bryce Jordan Center when it plays host to Ohio State at 7:30 p.m. BTN will carry the matchup. Penn State's home duals against Navy (Nov. 10), Penn (Dec. 8), Illinois (Jan. 10), Northwestern (Jan. 12), Maryland (Feb. 2) and American (Feb. 23) will all stream live on BTN+. Ad- ditionally, Penn State's road dual at Arizona State on Friday, Nov. 22, starts at 9 p.m. Eastern (7 p.m. local). The Nittany Lions' visit to Lehigh on Friday, Dec. 6, will begin at 7 p.m. ■ Six PSU matches set to air on national TV

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