No. 1 Penn State Wrestling hosts the No. 6 ranked Ohio State Buckeyes on Friday, February 2, 2024 for a dual meet chock full of ranked wrestlers and exciting matchups.
The Nittany Lions are coming off their 42-6 destruction of Maryland this past Sunday, while Ohio State’s latest action was a thrilling 20-19 win over Michigan on Friday night.
The Buckeyes have been incredibly busy on the mat this season as they’ve already competed in 13 dual meets. And the majority of Ohio State’s starters have at least 18 or more matches under their belt.
Compare this to Penn State‘s seven dual meets, along with Mitch Mesenbrink‘s team-leading 14 matches wrestled, and you can tell one team is trying their hardest to gain experience while the other one is laying in wait so they can peak at the best time.
But, before we highlight the dual and some of the key matchups, here’s how you can tune in on Friday night.
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How to watch Penn State Wrestling vs. Ohio State
Date: Friday, February 2ndTime: 6:30 p.m. ESTWhere: Rec Hall (University Park)TV: B1GLiveStream: FuboTV (FREE TRIAL)Listen: Free via Lionvision at GoPSUsports.com Now let’s turn to the potential matchups ahead of the action on Friday evening.
Penn State Wrestling vs. Ohio State Potential matchups
No. 1 Penn State (7-0) vs. No. 6 Ohio State (12-1)
125 – No. 3 Braeden Davis (PSU) vs No. 24 Brendan McCrone (OSU)
133 – No. 5 Aaron Nagao (PSU) vs No. 12 Nic Bouzakis (OSU)
141 – No. 2 Beau Bartlett (PSU) vs No. 3 Jesse Mendez (OSU)
149 – No. 12 Tyler Kasak or David Evans (PSU) vs No. 9 Dylan D’Emilio (OSU)
157 – No. 1 Levi Haines (PSU) vs No. 29 Isaac Wilcox (OSU)
165 – No. 7 Mitchell Mesenbrink (PSU) vs No. 20 Bryce Hepner (OSU)
174 – No. 1 Carter Starocci (PSU) vs No. 11 Rocco Welsh (OSU)
184 – No. 5 Bernie Truax (PSU) vs No. 31 Seth Shumate or Ryder Rogotzke (OSU)
197 – No. 1 Aaron Brooks (PSU) vs No. 22 Luke Geog or Gavin Bell (OSU)
285 – No. 1 Greg Kerkvliet (PSU) vs No. 12 Nick Feldman (OSU)
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Nittany Lions vs. Ohio State Prediction
As you can see by my wall of words and numbers above, this dual meet has the possibility to have ranked matchups at all 10 weights. While this would make for a wall-to-wall, action packed dual, I’m guessing Ohio State may throw out a backup or two.
But for the purposes of my predictions, I’m going to go ahead with the starters on both sides. In this dual meet I have five matches circled with the fattest Sharpie possible. The first match is between Beau Bartlett and Jesse Mendez.
Yeah I know, it’s shocking I have Beau in one of my “Key Matchups”. Because at this point in my writing career it might as well be called “Key Beau Bartlett Match Along with Some Others”.
Mendez and his banged up face finished as an All-American last season at 133 pounds. And he looks even stronger this year while going at 141. Beau looked much better the last time out than he had in his previous handful of matches, but at this point in the season it appears Jesse is simply wrestling better. And this includes the fact Mendez does have a loss on the year as he dropped a 4-2 decision back on December 10th to Pitt’s No. 22 Cole Matthews.
But since then Mendez has been on an absolute tear by beating No. 6 Cael Happel (4-2), No. 4 Ryan Jack (fall), No. 12 Vince Cornella (14-4), and No. 17 Kal Miller (21-5). It’s going to be a tough match for Bartlett and I’m going to say he loses a close one. The next match I have my eye on is Tyler Kasak against Dylan D’Emilio. And the contrast between these two wrestlers couldn’t be anymore different. D’Emilio has wrestled 108 collegiate matches while Kasak has a total of 11.
Furthermore, between the vast amount of bouts Dylan has battled, these guys only have one common opponent … and it’s Beau Bartlett. Dylan is 0-2 against Beau (4-2 & 5-2 – last year) and Kasak is 0-1 (4-1 – this year’s Black Knight Invite). So does this really mean anything? Nope, probably not as I see Kasak’s talent outweighing D’Emilio’s experience in a close match.
The third match which could be an interesting one is between Aaron Nagao and Nic Bouzakis. Up to this point in the season Nagao has faced four ranked wrestlers and he sports an even 2-2 record in these matches.
His two wins were against No. 29 Braden Basile and No. 32 Gabe Whisenhunt. Aaron’s losses came at the hands of No. 1 Ryan Crookham and No. 4 Dylan Ragusin. The reason I bring this up is because Nagao has faced a handful of non-competitive grapplers and he’s faced two really good ones.
This possible matchup against Bouzakis represents his first match against a good wrestler, but not a world beater. And on paper this appears to be a fairly even match, with Nagao getting the slight edge.
Nagao’s most recent loss, just like Bouzakis, came to Dylan Ragusin. But Nic didn’t out-wrestle Ragusin for seven and a half minutes only to be pinned in a split second like Aaron did. Nope. Bouzakis was humbled with a 15-6 major decision loss to Dylan. So based on this I believe it will be another close match between ranked foes and I once again see a Nittany Lion on top when the dust settles. Another match that I’m looking at is the Carter Starocci/Rocco Welsh bout at 174 pounds.
Before you say “Hey Chris, have you actually seen Carter wrestle this season? He’s destroying everyone.” Yes, I get it. But the reason I think this could be a close match is the fact that Rocco has taken a page out of the “Will Lewan School of Wrestling While Simultaneously Stalling” book.
In Welsh’s last two matches against high ranked wrestlers, he lost 2-1 against both No. 3 Shane Griffith and No. 9 Edmond Ruth.
And I would be willing to bet my set of golf clubs that Rocco will be running around the mat against Carter this Friday as well.
Starocci will of course win, but it may be closer than the experts think. Finally we’re onto the last potential matchup which could be electric. And that’s the match at heavyweight between Greg Kerkvliet and Nick Feldman. Feldman has some impressive wins on the year and it looks like he’s starting to gain some big time confidence on the mat following a recent 4-3 win against No. 6 Lucas Davison. Along with that victory, he’s also gotten the best of No. 20 Hunter Catka (3-2), No. 21 Keaton Kluever (20-5), No. 18 Cory Day (14-3), and No. 17 Lewis Fernandes (twice 8-1 & 6-4).
Nick Feldman isn’t going to go down without a fight, but that isn’t the problem. The problem will be the mountain of a man standing in front of him on the mat. And I believe this matchup, if it happens, will be a fun one to watch.
125 – No. 3 Braeden Davis (PSU) major dec. over No. 24 Brendan McCrone (OSU) 10-2
133 – No. 5 Aaron Nagao (PSU) dec. over No. 12 Nic Bouzakis (OSU) 7-4
141 – No. 3 Jesse Mendez (OSU) dec. over No. 2 Beau Bartlett (PSU) 4-1
149 – No. 12 Tyler Kasak (PSU) dec. over No. 9 Dylan D’Emilio (OSU) 5-2
157 – No. 1 Levi Haines (PSU) tech. fall over No. 29 Isaac Wilcox (OSU) 19-4
165 – No. 7 Mitchell Mesenbrink (PSU) major dec. over No. 20 Bryce Hepner (OSU) 17-7
174 – No. 1 Carter Starocci (PSU) dec. over No. 11 Rocco Welsh (OSU) 7-2
184 – No. 5 Bernie Truax (PSU) tech. fall over No. 31 Seth Shumate (OSU) 16-1
197 – No. 1 Aaron Brooks (PSU) tech. fall over No. 22 Luke Geog (OSU) 18-3
285 – No. 1 Greg Kerkvliet (PSU) dec. over No. 12 Nick Feldman (OSU) 7-3 Penn State 35 Ohio State 3
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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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