Penn State Wrestling pitches a shutout, 46-0, against the No. 29 Indiana Hoosiers in front of the home crowd to lead off the Big Ten slate.
I mean what else can we possibly say about the Nittany Lions Wrestling Team?
Superior coaching talent – check
Insanely talented group of wrestlers – check
Drive and motivation to work hard – check
As the Penn State faithful have seen over the many years of the Cael Sanderson era, there are just some incredible things that happen inside the walls of Rec Hall. And the home crowd was once again blessed with another amazing performance by the Penn State Wrestling Team.
Now onto the action!
The dual started out at 125 where Braeden Davis kept his winning ways going with another impressive outing. The completely one-sided 16-3 major decision was Davis’ seventh bonus point victory and the true freshman has officially put the rest of the 125 group on notice.
Aaron Nagao followed up Davis’ blowout win with an even more lopsided win, a 19-4 technical fall.
The back-to-back bonus point wins for Davis and Nagao were just a taste of the foreshadowing Nittany Lion nation would see on the afternoon.
As predicted, Beau Bartlett‘s match was a bit on the conservative side.
However make no mistake about it, Bartlett was still the superior grappler in the bout and his 8-1 decision extended Penn State’s lead to 12-0 on the day.
But what I didn’t predict at all, was the result in the Tyler Kasak/Graham Rooks match. Both myself and the No. 1 Penn State Wrestling Fan (Jessi Lillo), agreed that this was going to be a difficult spot. And as it appears to happen time and time again, a Penn State wrestler proves someone wrong.
Kasak was all over Rooks from the opening whistle and built an 11-0 lead after the first period. Then going into the third period Kasak extended it to 14-0 while tacking on a whopping 3:19 in riding time.
Tyler then put the finishing touches on Rooks in the final period and when his hand was raised at the center of the mat, the true freshman had just won a 15-0 technical fall over a ranked foe.
Wow.
Levi Haines looked really sharp in his match as he breezed his way to a 17-0 technical fall. Mitch Mesenbrink then won via an injury default and Carter Starocci also joined the “tech” party by securing a 19-4 technical fall of his own. Following these three matches, the Nittany Lions amassed a 33-0 lead over the Hoosiers.
Josh Barr then got the nod at 184 and he made the most of his opportunity. The true freshman bull dozed his way to a 13-4 major decision and the victory gave Penn State it’s seventh bonus point win of the day.
Aaron Brooks also joined the bonus party with a 19-4 technical fall and Greg Kerkvliet completely walked through his opponent with a 14-2 major decision.
On the day Penn State tallied three major decisions and an astounding five technical falls over a ranked team.
The Nittany Lions take to the road in their next dual meet at Michigan on Friday, January 19th. The dual is set for 6:00pm EST and will be broadcast on the Big Ten Network.
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No. 29 Indiana 0 No. 1 Penn State 46
125 Braeden Davis (PSU) major dec. over Michael Spangler (IND) 16-3, IND 0 PSU 4
133 No. 4 Aaron Nagao (PSU) tech. fall over Isaac Thornton (IND) 19-4, IND 0 PSU 9
141 No. 2 Beau Bartlett (PSU) dec. over No. 23 Danny Fongaro (IND) 8-1, IND 0 PSU 12
149 Tyler Kasak (PSU) tech. fall over No. 14 Graham Rooks (IND) 15-0, IND 0 PSU 17
157 No. 1 Levi Haines (PSU) tech. fall over Zack Rotkvich (IND) 17-0, IND 0 PSU 22
165 No. 10 Mitch Mesenbrink (PSU) injury default over No. 23 Tyler Lillard (IND) 1:48, IND 0 PSU 28
174 No. 1 Carter Starocci (PSU) tech. fall over Robert Major (IND) 19-4, IND 0 PSU 33
184 Josh Barr (PSU) major dec. over Roman Rogotzke (IND) 13-4, IND 0 PSU 37
197 No. 1 Aaron Brooks (PSU) tech. fall over Gabe Sollars (IND) 19-4, IND 0 PSU 42
285 No. 1 Greg Kerkvliet (PSU) major dec. over Nick Willham (IND) 14-2, IND 0 PSU 46
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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.