The No. 1 Penn State Wrestling team completely crushed the Hofstra Pride 43-10 in front of the home crowd on Sunday afternoon.
Even without the services of Beau Bartlett (rest), Shayne Van Ness (out for the remainder of the season due to an injury), and Greg Kerkvliet (competing in the U.S. Senior Nationals), the Nittany Lions were simply too much to handle for the overmatched Hofstra squad.
Penn State grapplers racked up eight bonus wins on the day which included a major decision, three technical falls, and four pins.
Penn State Wrestling vs. Hofstra Recap
Now onto the action!
The dual started out at 125 where Braedan Davis made his long awaited Rec Hall debut. And he surely didn’t disappoint the Nittany Lion faithful in attendance.
After jumping out to a 3-1 lead after the first period, Davis added an escape, two more takedowns, and the riding time point to secure an impressive 11-2 major decision in his dual meet debut.
And not to be out done, Aaron Nagao went to work on his opponent right from the opening whistle.
Using the tried and true method of taking your foe to the mat, cutting them loose, and then taking them down again, Nagao rolled to a 21-6 technical fall only 4:20 into the match.
Thanks for the three point takedown, NCAA!
Next up for Penn State, and also making his dual meet and Rec Hall debut, was David Evans as he gave Beau Bartlett a breather at 141 pounds.
Based on Evans’ performances this season in both the Journeymen Classic and the Black Knight Invitational, he absolutely deserved a shot in the starting lineup at some point.
And just like Braedan Davis, Evans took full advantage of the opportunity by blasting his Hofstra opponent to the tune of a 19-4 technical fall.
The bonus points ticker-tape parade was on full force and after only the first three matches of the afternoon, Penn State led Hofstra 14-0.
But on this Sunday afternoon there would be no shutout for the Nittany Lions. Connor Pierce also made his dual meet and Rec Hall debut, however it did not turn out quite as good as it did for the other guys.
Pierce was behind the eight-ball from the get go and his Pride counterpart was too much for him to handle. After trailing 6-0 after the first period and 10-1 after the second, Pierce ultimately dropped a 14-4 major decision.
Hofstra finally was on the board as they trailed 14-4 with six matches remaining.
And at 157 pounds, this is how I envisioned the match going:
–Levi Haines parks his 2004 Chevy Cavalier at the Lion Shrine
-He pays for two minutes of parking
-He runs from his car into Rec Hall and onto the mat wearing his Nittany Lion singlet
-Haines pins his opponent in one minute and two seconds
-He runs back to his car and pulls out before getting a ticket
Is this how the match went? Other than the pinning part, probably not. But it would have been funny if it did.
And if one pin is awesome, then two pins is even better. Because Mitchell Mesenbrink must have been riding shotgun in Haines’ Cavalier as he also pinned his foe only one minute and 24 seconds into his match.
With only four matches remaining in the dual, Penn State owned a 26-4 lead over Hofstra.
The onslaught of bonus victories continued for the Nittany Lions with Carter Starocci snagging a 19-3 technical fall and with Bernie Truax and Aaron Brooks adding two more falls for Penn State.
In the final bout of the afternoon it was AJ Fricchione’s turn to make his dual meet and Rec Hall debut. But he was going to have his hands full as across from the mat stood the only ranked Hofstra grappler, in No. 21 Keaton Kluever.
Which was exactly the case for Fricchione. After leading the opening period 6-2, Kluever called “game” when he turned AJ’s back to the mat and the referee awarded the pin a little more than a minute into the second period.
Next up for Penn State is an away dual against No. 21 Oregon State on January 5th at 8:00pm EST.
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Penn State Wrestling vs. Hofstra Full Results:
Hofstra 10, No. 1 Penn State 43
125 – Braedan Davis (PSU) major dec. over Dylan Acevedo-Switzer (HOF) 11-2, HOF 0 PSU 4
133 – No. 4 Aaron Nagao (PSU) tech. fall over Ryan Arbeit (HOF) 21-6, HOF 0 PSU 9
141 – David Evans (PSU) tech. fall over Alex Turley (HOF) 19-4, HOF 0 PSU 14
149 – Noah Tapia (HOF) major dec. over Connor Pierce (PSU) 14-4, HOF 4 PSU 14
157 – No. 1 Levi Haines (PSU) fall over Dylan Zenion (HOF) 1:02, HOF 4 PSU 20
165 – No. 14 Mitch Mesenbrink (PSU) fall over Matt Waddell (HOF) 1:24, HOF 4 PSU 26
174 – No. 1 Carter Starocci (PSU) tech. fall over Eric Shindell (HOF) 19-3, HOF 4 PSU 31
184 – No. 2 Bernie Truax (PSU) fall over Will Conlon (HOF) 1:51 – HOF 4 PSU 37
197 – No. 1 Aaron Brooks (PSU) fall over Nikolas Miller (HOF) 4:22, HOF 4 PSU 43
285 – No. 21 Keaton Kluever (HOF) fall over AJ Fricchione (PSU) 4:32, HOF 10 PSU 43
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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.
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