No. 1 Penn State Wrestling proved exactly whey they are “Pin State” in a dominant road win against Maryland 42-6.
The dual meet in College Park started off with a bang, then slowed down at times. But holy cow was the second half unbelievably exciting for the large Penn State crowd in attendance.
The Nittany Lions secured four pins and a major decision in the last five matches on the afternoon and Maryland and it’s fans left the XFINITY Pavilion shaking their heads at what they had just seen.
Now onto the action!
The dual started out at 125 where Braeden Davis riled up the large Penn State contingency who make the trek down to College Park.
Davis’ overwhelming display of wrestling resulted in a 15-0 first-period technical fall and one very humbled Maryland wrestler.
Baylor Shunk then got the start at 133 as Aaron Nagao was under the weather.
Shunk battled hard in the match, however his ranked counterpart was just simply too good. Credit to Baylor though as he only lost a decision to No. 21 Brown and did not give up any additional bonus points. Or maybe I should credit the head-scratching decision not to cut Shunk lose in the third period to try for the major.
Who knows?
In our preview of this dual, I mentioned the next match at 141 pounds (Bartlett vs. Miller) had “The score is tied 1-1 with 1:00 left in the third period” written all over it. I then promptly followed this up by saying I would like to be wrong. Well, Bartlett proved me wrong.
Beau looked more decisive on his shots, he finished on those shots, he looked strong on top, and he breezed past a ranked foe with an 11-1 major decision. And after the first three matches on the day the Nittany Lions were out to a 9-3 lead. With both Tyler Kasak and David Evans participating in the Mat Town Open, it was Connor Pierce who would go at 149.
And just like Shunk, Pierce would be going up against a ranked Terrapin wrestler. After giving up a takedown in the opening period, Pierce battled tough for the remainder of the match.
There were multiple times in the third period where Connor almost hit home with a shot, however Ethen Miller defended them well. The match then ended with Miller winning a 5-0 decision and Maryland was clawing their way back as they were only trailing 9-6.
Levi Haines was next up at 157. And my sneaking suspicion came to fruition in this match as it was indeed a “Get Right” match for him.
Haines defended a good shot by North early in the first period, but from that point on it was a Levi-a-thon. Haines was in full control and he cruised past North with the 15-0 technical fall.
I’ve seen some questions from Nittany Lion fans recently asking if they were actually trying to win technical falls rather than pinning their opponents. And I completely get it, with the change in takedown points the takedown/cut and repeat method could lead to a quick and easy win. But trust me, this talented Penn State squad is still “Pin State”.
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And nothing was more evident of that than what Mitchell Mesenbrink, Carter Starocci, and Bernie Truax did in this dual.
Mesenbrink dispatched his opponent in 50 seconds, Starocci got bored and pinned his opponent in the second period after he led the first period 18-6, and Truax wasted little time in turning his foe to his back one minute and 43 seconds into the match.
The trio of pins resulted in the Nittany Lions busting out to a 32-6 lead with only two matches remaining in the dual. At 197, and as Mr. Hoobler on FB put it, Brooks continued his “Aaron looks like he’s a high school senior wrestling 6th graders” campaign.
But, this time it was against the fifth ranked wrestler at 197 pounds. Brooks was sharp on his feet and he was strong with his shots all match long.
Jaxon Smith didn’t have a single answer to the onslaught and Aaron won a 13-4 major decision. But hey, give him credit for making Aaron Brooks wrestle his first seven minute match this year! Up last at 285, Greg Kerkvliet tried to beat Mitchell’s fall time, but unfortunately, he was out on the mat for a full five seconds longer.
The fall gave Penn State a runaway 42-6 win over Maryland and the Nittany Lions secured 28 points from their second half lineup alone. Penn State is back on the mat this Friday as they host No. 7 Ohio State in Rec Hall. The dual is set to kickoff at 6:30pm EST and will air nationally on the Big Ten Network.
No. 1 Penn State 42 Maryland 6
Full Results
125 No. 4 Braeden Davis (PSU) tech. fall over Tommy Capul (MD) 15-0, PSU 5 MD 0
133 No. 21 Braxton Brown (MD) dec. over Baylor Shunk (PSU) 8-3, PSU 5 MD 3
141 No. 2 Beau Bartlett (PSU) major dec. over No. 17 Kal Miller (MD) 11-1, PSU 9 MD 3
149 No. 14 Ethen Miller (MD) dec. over Connor Pierce (PSU) 5-0, PSU 9 MD 6
157 No. 1 Levi Haines (PSU) tech. fall over No. 33 Michael North (MD) 15-0, PSU 14 MD 6
165 No. 7 Mitchell Mesenbrink (PSU) fall over Ryan Money (MD) 0:50, PSU 20 MD 6
174 No. 1 Carter Starocci (PSU) fall over Mason Stein (MD) 4:26, PSU 26 MD 6
184 No. 5 Bernie Truax (PSU) fall over Chase Mielnik (MD) 1:42, PSU 32 MD 6
197 No. 1 Aaron Brooks (PSU) major dec. over No. 5 Jaxon Smith (MD) 13-4, PSU 36 MD 6
285 No. 1 Greg Kerkvliet (PSU) fall over Jordan Gabriel (MD) 0:55, PSU 42 MD 6
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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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