No. 1 Penn State Wrestling holds on to defeat the No. 4 Nebraska Cornhuskers 22-13 in the final Big Ten regular season dual meet.
For the first time all year, a team actually tested the Nittany Lions.
But look, everyone knew Nebraska would be a tough out and there’s no such thing as a “cakewalk” when wrestling in the Big Ten.
What’s that saying about “steel sharpens steel”?
Moving on.
So let’s break down the dual meet and let you know how everything unfolded.
Penn State Wrestling vs. Nebraska Recap
The dual started out at 125 where it looked like Braeden Davis was in relatively good shape down 0-1 going into the third period. And Davis also had over a minute of riding time built up so the match was essentially tied.
But Caleb Smith was all over Braeden in the third and he had no answers when both guys were on their feet and he was manhandled when on bottom.
With the 11-3 major decision loss, Davis is now 1-2 in his last three matches. However, I don’t think we’re anywhere near hitting the panic button. This coaching staff knows exactly what Davis needs to do in the postseason and they’re going to make sure he’s ready to go.
Next up at 133 Baylor Shunk filled in for Aaron Nagao. And the gritty junior gave Jacob Van Dee a heck of a match, but in the end, Shunk dropped the 6-2 decision.
In the next two matchups at 141 and 149, Penn State and Nebraska traded decision wins as Beau Bartlett looked sharp (for the most part) with a 9-6 decision over Brocky Hardy and Ridge Lovett humbled Tyler Kasak with a one-way traffic 7-3 decision.
After the first four matches of the dual the Cornhuskers led the Nittany Lions 10-3.
But fret not Penn State faithful, because the man with ice in his veins was up next. And let’s just say that Levi Haines didn’t disappoint.
As the seconds were ticking away in the second period, Levi appeared to snag a takedown on Peyton Robb and the officials went to the review to make sure they got the five count. And boy was it close.
The officials ultimately awarded Haines the takedown and he led 3-1 going into the final period. And this is where Levi went to absolute work on Robb.
Haines powered through with two takedowns in the frame and it looked like he could get a takedown whenever he wanted one. In the end Haines rolled through with the 10-3 decision and at the midway point in the dual Nebraska led Penn State 10-6.
Coming out of the break, you could hear an audible gasp from the crowd when Antrell Taylor took Mitchell Mesenbrink to the mat for a very early takedown. To make matters worse, Mesenbrink had to take an injury timeout as he was holding his ribs.
Mitchell was able to continue and if his ribs were truly injured, then he could have fooled everyone. Because Mesenbrink flipped a 1-3 deficit into a 9-5 decision in his favor.
With only four matches left in the dual meet, the Cornhuskers were still clinging to a 10-9 lead.
Levi and Mitchell did all they could to turn the tide against the Cornhuskers, and not shockingly, Carter Starocci kept the winning train going.
Starocci tacked on six takedowns against Bubba Wilson and he cruised to a 20-4 technical fall in the third period.
At 184, Bernie Truax was trailing the match from the very beginning. Trailing 6-3 going into the third period, Truax allowed Pinto an escape and he immediately went on the attack.
Truax hit home with a beautiful shot and he drove through for the takedown to cut Pinto’s lead to 7-6. Bernie let Pinto up again and the match was 8-6 with short time in the period.
And as the final seconds of the period were ticking away, it appeared Truax secured the winning takedown. However the officials did not award it in real-time. Then following a brief video review, the officials confirmed there was no takedown. So with Truax’s 8-6 decision loss, the Nittany Lions were leading Nebraska 14-13 with only two matches left.
Moving on to 197, I distinctly remember last year that someone who covers Penn State Wrestling said it would be a mistake for Aaron Brooks to move up to 197 pounds. And I’ll be honest, that person was me.
I simply could not have been more wrong because Aaron Brooks looks like an entirely different wrestler this year on the mat. And his dominance continued as he walked through last year’s Big Ten Champion in a 17-4 major decision. And it was still nowhere near as close as the score indicated.
In the final match of the afternoon, Greg Kerkvliet was tested by Nebraska’s converted football player Nash Hutmacher. Kerk was able to break down Hutmacher late in the first period for a takedown and he then pulled the reversal early into the second period to make the score 5-0 in his favor.
Kerk Kong continued to pour on the pressure from the top position and going into the third period, he had already locked up the riding time point. In the end, Greg piled up over five minutes of riding time as he closed out the dual meet with an 10-0 major decision.
Like I said, it wasn’t easy but the Nittany Lions still came out on top 22-13.
Penn State wraps up their 2023-2024 dual meet schedule next Sunday as they host Edinboro. The match will start at 2:00pm EST and will air on B1G+.
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No. 4 Nebraska 13 No. 1 Penn State 22 RESULTS
125 No. 12 Caleb Smith (NEB) dec. over No. 6 Braeden Davis (PSU) 11-3, NEB 4 PSU 0
133 No. 17 Jacob Van Dee (NEB) dec. over Baylor Shunk (PSU) 6-2, NEB 7 PSU 0
141 No. 1 Beau Bartlett (PSU) dec. over No. 7 Brock Hardy (NEB) 9-6, NEB 7 PSU 3
149 No. 1 Ridge Lovett (NEB) dec. over No. 9 Tyler Kasak (PSU) 7-3, NEB 10 PSU 3
157 No. 1 Levi Haines (PSU) dec. over No. 7 Peyton Robb (NEB) 10-3, NEB 10 PSU 6
165 No. 6 Mitchell Mesenbrink (PSU) dec. over No. 15 Antrell Taylor (NEB) 9-5, NEB 10 PSU 9
174 No. 1 Carter Starocci (PSU) tech. fall over No. 33 Bubba Wilson (NEB) 20-4, NEB 10 PSU 14
184 No. 3 Lenny Pinto (NEB) dec. over No. 6 Bernie Truax (PSU) 8-6, NEB 13 PSU 14
197 No. 1 Aaron Brooks (PSU) major dec. over No. 13 Silas Allred (NEB) 17-4, NEB 13 PSU 18
285 No. 1 Greg Kerkvliet (PSU) major dec. over Nash Hutmacher (NEB) 10-0, NEB 13 PSU 22
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Education: Penn State University
Location: State College, PA
Even though he had no prior journalism experience, Chris has now covered Penn State Wrestling and Penn State Football for the past three years, including as the Penn State Wrestling Beat Writer for VictoryBellRings.com, part of the FanSided network.
And it's clear he also likes constant torture as he's been a PSU Basketball fan for way too long.
Several years back, Chris made the seamless transition from PGA Professional to computer programmer and thoroughly enjoys following and writing about all things related to Penn State sports during his spare time.