TIM WEIGHT/Special to the Sun-Gazette Penn State competes today in the Big Ten wrestling championships.

STATE COLLEGE — During the opening space battle of Star Wars Episode III, a smiling Anakin Skywalker says as he’s about to engage the enemy ship, “This is where the fun begins.”

Members of the Penn State wrestling team said virtually the same thing Monday during its pre-Big Ten Championships media availability in the Lorenzo Wrestling Complex.

“This is the fun part,” Carter Starocci said. “It’s exciting wrestling all of the matches all year long, but this is why you train really hard. So, this is kind of easy and this is what it’s all about right here.”

Beau Bartlett is excited, too, but he has an additional factor motivating him.

“It’s really exciting. This is how you wrap up the season. I think every match counts but this is especially fun right here,” he said. “Freshman year, I didn’t qualify for nationals (wrestling up a weight at 149). Last year, my focus was ‘come on, win some matches at Big Tens and qualify for nationals. Right now, I’m not thinking about qualifying for nationals. I want to win everything, and I feel it.”

Even coach Cael Sanderson, who more often talks about improvement instead of winning or losing, admitted to a sense of anticipation.

“We love the wrestling. I mean, you have to love the sport, so you love everything that’s in front of you, whether it’s the first dual or the last dual,” he said. “But the conference and nationals are the most exciting stuff.”

The tournament gets under way at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Crisler Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and wraps up with the first-, third- and fifth-place bouts starting at 4:30 p.m. Sunday. An allotment of 88 pre-allocation berths are on the line, with as few as seven at one weight (174) and as many as 10 at another weight (157). The top eight wrestlers qualify at 165, while the top nine advance at 125, 133, 141, 149, 184, 197 and 285.

If the Nittany Lions just wrestle to their pre-seeds, they would qualify nine wrestlers for the 2023 NCAA Championships at the BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Only 125-pounder Gary Steen, who is seeded 11th, has to wrestle above his seed to earn an automatic berth to NCAAs. The rest of the Penn State lineup, with their pre-seed in parentheses, includes: 133, Roman Bravo-Young (1); 141, Beau Bartlett (2); 149, Shayne Van Ness (5); 157, Levi Haines (2); 165, Alex Facundo (4); 174, Carter Starocci (1); 184, Aaron Brooks (1); 197, Max Dean (1); 285, Greg Kerkvliet (285).

Penn State found itself in a similar situation last year in the days leading up to the tournament. Like this year, it had completed an undefeated regular season and won the Big Ten dual meet championship. Most observers tabbed the Nittany Lions as favorites.

But as the tournament wrapped up, Penn State found itself in second place, 1.5 points behind Michigan. The Wolverines, Sanderson said at the time, “just kept winning every match.” The historic win was Michigan’s first Big Ten championship since 1973.

With last year’s near-miss, is Sanderson a little hungrier this year to add a seventh Big Ten Tournament title to his resume?

“I mean, I’d like to win, as a coach, but we really haven’t talked about that. We don’t talk a lot about winning and losing. I mean, it’s kind of an expectation these guys have,” he said.

“Little kids want to win. You don’t have to tell them that they want to win; it’s something you’re born with. We want to compete well.”

And while Sanderson has said many, many times over the years that any competitor wants to win everything, a Big Ten title isn’t the team’s ultimate prize. The fact that, under Sanderson, the Nittany Lions have claimed six Big Ten titles and nine NCAA championships is revealing.

“I think our eyes are always on the nationals. That’s the biggest goal. The conference is part of the nationals in that you have to qualify and get there. It determines your placing and your seed there,” he said.

“That’s just kind of the way I’ve always looked at it just because that’s what my coach (Iowa State’s Bobby Douglas) would always say. He said it’s like the first two rounds of nationals. So, your question is, do we want to win the Big Ten Conference? Heck, yeah. Let’s go.”