STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — The No. 1 Penn State Wrestling team flexed their muscles against the Lehigh Mountain Hawks 30-10 in their first dual meet action of the 2023-2024 season.
Several Nittany Lions backups were in action and even though Lehigh is a talented squad, it just didn’t matter.
Was the score drastically different from what I predicted Saturday?
You’re darn right it was.
But, the important thing is that the outcome ended up being the same as I predicted.
Now onto the action!
Penn State Wrestling vs. Lehigh Recap
The dual started out at 125 where Gary Steen was given the nod over Braedan Davis and Robbie Howard.
And just like he did early last season, Steen wrestled a tough match and numerous times got himself out of some tricky situations. But also just like last year, he ended up on the wrong end of a 4-1 decision.
Aaron Nagao then followed this up with the Nittany Lions’ second straight decision loss at the hands of No. 5 Ryan Crookham. After two matches Lehigh jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the dual.
Beau Bartlett finally got Penn State on the board with a 14-6 major decision and Tyler Kasak won a 7-5 decision in his first appearance in the starting lineup.
Kasak’s win in his Rec Hall debut swung the lead back in Penn State’s favor 7-6.
Although Levi Haines was trailing 5-4 going into the third period, there was no reason to panic whatsoever.
Because Haines put on a show in the final period to cruise to a 12-6 decision. And going into the break, the Nittany Lions opened up a 10-6 lead against the Mountain Hawks.
Mitch Mesenbrink piled up Penn State’s second bonus points of the dual as he was all over No. 32 Jake Logan on his way to a 17-2 technical fall. And speaking of “all over”, that also best describes the next match.
Carter Starocci steamrolled his way to a 9-2 lead with just less than a minute remaining in the first period. And after he cinched in a bow and arrow on the far side of the mat, it was lights out for his opponent after his back squarely hit the Resilite.
With three matches remaining on the afternoon, Penn State Wrestling held a comfortable 21-6 lead.
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And so far on the day, the Rec Hall first-timers for Penn State were 2-0 with both Kasak and Mesenbrink rolling to victories.
Do you think Bernie Truax wanted to join in on the fun? Of course he did!
Truax flipped a switch in the third period and he bullied his way to a 19-4 technical fall after “only” leading the match 8-2 following the second period.
Unfortunately Lucas Cochran could not keep the train rolling for the Nittany Lions as he fell to All-American and former Penn Stater, Michael Beard, 20-6.
And in the final match of the dual meet, Greg Kerkvliet did what Greg Kerkvliet does best. And that’s completely suffocate and crush the soul of another massive and ridiculously athletic human being.
Granted that fellow human being happened to be No. 12 ranked Nathan Taylor and this did mark their second meeting so far in the early season. But none of that mattered.
When Kerk Kong is on his game, the guy standing across from him is going to be in big, big trouble.
Which is exactly how this match played out as Kerkvliet powered his way to an 11-1 major decision. The Nittany Lions then extended their dual meet winning streak to 45 straight with a 30-10 win over Lehigh.
Next up for Penn State is a home dual against Hofstra on Sunday, December 10th, at 1pm.
No. 24 Lehigh 10 No. 1 Penn State 30 Full Results
125 Sheldon Seymour (LEH) dec. over Gary Steen (PSU) 4-1, LEH 3 PSU 0
133 No. 5 Ryan Crookham (LEH) dec. over No. 3 Aaron Nagao (PSU) 6-4, LEH 6 PSU 0
141 No. 2 Beau Bartlett (PSU) major dec. over Carter Bailey (LEH) 14-6, LEH 6 PSU 4
149 Tyler Kasak (PSU) dec. over Drew Munch (LEH) 7-5, LEH 6 PSU 7
157 No. 1 Levi Haines (PSU) dec. over No. 24 Max Brignola (LEH) 12-6, LEH 6 PSU 10
165 No. 16 Mitch Mesenbrink (PSU) tech. fall over No. 32 Jake Logan (LEH) 17-2, LEH 6 PSU 15
174 No. 1 Carter Starocci (PSU) fall over Thayne Lawrence (LEH) 2:07, LEH 6 PSU 21
184 No. 2 Bernie Truax (PSU) tech. fall over Jack Wilt (LEH) 19-4, LEH 6 PSU 26
197 No. 10 Michael Beard (LEH) major dec. over Lucas Cochran (PSU) 20-6, LEH 10 PSU 26
285 No. 1 Greg Kerkvliet (PSU) major dec. over No. 12 Nathan Taylor (LEH) 11-1, LEH 10 PSU 30
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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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