Quicken Loans Arena (20,562 capacity) – Cleveland, Ohio

- NCAA Wrestling Championships last held in Cleveland in 1998 on the campus of Cleveland State with Iowa edging Minnesota, 115-102, for the team title.

Day 1 | First session begins at noon (ET) Thursday and runs until approximately 4 p.m., with pigtails and first-round action taking place on eight mats. Session II begins at 7 p.m. and features a set of preliminaries and first-round matches in the consolation bracket, followed by second-round championship matches and also another round of wrestle-backs.

Day 2 | Quarterfinal action takes place at 11 a.m. on four middle mats, with wrestle-back matches on the outside four mats mats. The first session lasts approximately until 3 p.m. Then at 8:00, they pare the action down to six mats. Semifinals take place on two middle mats (one weight at a time), with fourth-round wrestle-backs on four outside mats and fifth-round wrestle-backs on all mats following the championship semifinals. Session IV lasts until at least 11:30 p.m.

Day 3 | Wrestle-back semifinals begin the final day of the tournament at 11 a.m., followed by the third-, fifth- and seventh-place medal-round matches. After a break, the event resumes at 7:35 p.m., with the Grand March Parade of All-Americans, which lasts until 7:50. That is followed by the championship finals from 8 to 11:30 p.m.

TV | A total of 19 hours of wrestling, every match (640 total) of every session will be streamed online and broadcast through ESPN/ESPNU/ESPN3 for the fourth consecutive year.

Thursday's opening round (noon) is live on ESPNU before it switches over to ESPN in the evening for the second championship round (7 p.m.)

Friday's quarterfinals air on ESPNU during the day (11 a.m.). Then ESPN takes over for the semifinal round that evening for primetime coverage (8 p.m.)

On Saturday, the medal rounds air on ESPNU (11 a.m.) before ESPN2 airs the championship finals (8 p.m.)

Throughout all six sessions ESPN3 streams every single mat and match, allowing fans to follow any wrestler and/or school.

RADIO WRSC in State College (103.1 FM) will provide tournament coverage, with Jeff Byers handling the play-by-play call. GoPSUSports.com will also stream Byers' call online AT THIS LINK.

WEB BlueWhiteIllustrated.com will provide match updates and tournament news on The Wrestling Room message board. We will also post a daily recap of the action on the front page.

TWO-HORSE RACE FOR TEAM CROWN - Winners of the past eight NCAA Championships, it's once again Ohio State and Penn State, victorious in seven of those last eight, who are the favorites. Surprises always happen – and are what make this tournament special – but it's unlikely any other team challenges the Buckeyes or Nittany Lions this year. Based on the seeds, admittedly a terribly imperfect science, Ohio State is in position to outscore PSU by at least 10 points. The next closest team (Missouri) is more than 30 points away from either Big Ten squad. Of course seldom does a wrestler finish exactly to where he was seeded and forecasting by seeds doesn't take into account potential bonus points – and that's a hallmark of the Nittany Lions at this tournament.

RETHERFORD TO DEFEND THE HODGE – At Big Tens two weeks ago, Zain Retherford won his 89th match in a row to set a new school record for a career win streak. As the top seed at 149 pounds, Retherford has the opportunity to extend that to 94 in Cleveland and join Ed Ruth as the only two three-timers in PSU history. In doing so, Retherford can also put himself in position to win his second Hodge Trophy in two years, which is announced after the tournament. Retherford enters atop the standings of the "Most Dominant" wrestler, according to NCAA.com, with teammate Bo Nickal (184) in second-place. Retherford's teammates might be his strongest challengers against repeating the Hodge. Returning champs Nickal and Mark Hall (174) each are undefeated going back to last year's postseason and only returning 125-pound champion Darian Cruz of Lehigh has a longer win streak. Others under consideration for the Hodge include: South Dakota State's Seth Gross (133); Illinois' Isaiah Martinez (165 - Illinois); and Arizona State's Zahid Valencia (174).

WORLD CHAMP SNYDER CONCLUDES COLLEGE CAREER – The youngest Olympic gold medalist in United States' history, heavyweight Kyle Snyder of Ohio State embarks upon the final tournament of his collegiate career. He would have also been squarely amid the conversation for the Hodge Trophy had he not suffered a loss to Michigan's Adam Coon in a late-season dual meet. Snyder won the rematch in the conference final two weeks ago, and ESPN is already touting a Snyder-Coon rubber match for the primetime showing of the finals Saturday. Penn State's Nick Nevills is in position to play spoiler as the three seed and could face Coon in the semis. Nevills lost to Coon by major decision, 8-0, in the Jan. 12 dual meet, but head coach Cael Sanderson said he has seen improvement from the Nittany Lion junior since then. "Nick Nevills is wrestling really well right now," he said. "He’s just better all around than he was midseason."

RECORD-HIGH 12 WRESTLERS HUNT FOR ANOTHER NCAA TITLE – Boosted by Penn State's five returning champions, spanning consecutive weight classes from 149 to 184 pounds, eight of last season's 10 NCAA title winners are back to win another one in 2018. Four additional wrestlers who had won an individual championship previously in their careers are also back and motivated to finish atop the podium again. In addition to Retherford and Snyder, Martinez (165) and Oklahoma State's Dean Heil (141), who has suffered five losses on the season and is seeded No. 6, are within reach of a third NCAA crown. Of the 12 former champs, there are a total of 16 titles split between them. According to research from FloWrestling.com, it's the highest number of championships won in a single national tournament in a decade.

HEALTH STATUS OF SOME OF NATION'S BEST - For the second year in a row, injury questions shroud the status of one of Penn State's top starters. Last year it was Nick Suriano, who now wrestles for Rutgers and is dealing with another injury, himself. This year, it's Nolf, the returning champ at 157. Injured in a late-January dual meet at Rutgers, Nolf returned to action two weeks ago at Big Tens. He wrestled twice with a heavy brace around his right knee, winning both times, before opting out of the tournament and settling for sixth place. Suriano did the same and both enter their respective brackets as the third and fourth seeds, respectively. They're not the only star-caliber wrestlers who are on the mend. Iowa's Michael Kemerer finished sixth alongside Nolf in the 157-pound bracket at Big Tens and now they are set for a quarterfinal showdown as arguably two of the best at the weight class. Oklahoma State's returning All-American Preston Weigel (197) has also missed time late this season and enters as a No. 9 seed.

If you're looking for a blueprint on how Penn State and its nine qualifiers can walk away with its third title in three years, look no further than last year's tournament in St. Louis. Ohio State was fresh off a win at the Big Ten tournament, but it was the Nittany Lions who prevailed at NCAAs. Certainly the unprecedented 5-for-5 run in the finals is what boosted Penn State to a school record 146.5 points, but even without one or two of those champs, PSU would've had enough to outpace the Buckeyes. Asking for another five champs this year is a lot to ask. Asking for another five finalists out of this Penn State team, however, is not unrealistic. Add in how Corey Keener (133) makes a ninth potential scorer compared to last year's eight, and a point total in the 115-range is not farfetched. Ohio State finished with 110 a year ago. It's also possible that Penn State gets an upgrade in scoring at 141 from freshman Nick Lee and at 197 from junior Shakur Rasheed, compared to last season's qualifier at the same weights, and that would take an additional load off Penn State's big five.

The Buckeyes are improved from last season and all 10 of its starters earned a qualifying spot for nationals, which makes it, along with Lehigh, one of only two teams to do so. In Tomasello, Jordan and Snyder, they have a trio of wrestlers who are within reach of their fourth All-America citation, and likewise each are champion candidates who can score bonus points. Additionally, Martin (184) and Kellen Moore (197) are seeded among the top two at their weight class and are picked by many to be in the final, while Micah Jordan (157) is on the same side of the bracket as Nolf. If Nolf is hampered by his knee injury, that could significantly impact PSU's point potential, as he scored bonus in all five of his wins a year ago. On Tuesday, Nolf described himself as "at 100 percent," and said he's "feeling really good, ready to go. Getting excited." If, however, injury lingers and prevents him from performing up the standard he has set the past two seasons that could dampen PSU's total. While Retherford and Nickal have the best odds to return to the finals, Joseph and Hall have a few more obstacles in their way. Say if PSU only has a couple finalists compared to four or five for the Bucks, it could make the championship round awfully interesting in terms of the team race. If the Nittany Lions don't get the anticipated amount of supplementary points from the three newcomers and Nevills, then don't be surprised if the Buckeyes pull this one off.