No. 1 Penn State Wrestling dominated from start to finish, 36-3 in road test against No. 16 Oregon State.
From the get go, the Nittany Lions set the tone and one could say it was quite deafening for the Beaver home crowd. And not exactly in a good way for them.
Going on the road and taking on tough competition is exactly what Penn State needed before they turn the page to the meat grinder which is the Big Ten regular season schedule. And the experience the younger guys gained combined with the continued repetitions from the veteran grapplers will go a long way for when the Nittany Lions take on Indiana next Sunday.
But before we look too far ahead, let’s take a look at how the action unfolded this evening.
Now onto the action!
Penn State Wrestling Blows out Top Competition
The dual started out at 125 where true freshman phenom Braeden Davis got the ball rolling straight down the hill for the Nittany Lions following his 11-6 decision win against No. 15 Brandon Kaylor.
Aaron Nagao kept the momentum going as he pitched a 9-0 shutout major decision and Beau Bartlett had the Beaver crowd on the edge of their seats with a thrilling 8-5 decision in sudden victory.
Next it was Tyler Kasak’s turn to topple a ranked foe as he cruised to a 4-1 decision of his own against 11 Nash Singleton. This was the second unranked upset of the night by a Penn State wrestlers.
However, something tells me that Braeden Davis and Tyler Kasak won’t be unranked for too long.
But it wasn’t all smooth sailing for the Nittany Lions because Levi Haines had his hands full with his unranked opponent.
Trailing 6-3 going into the final period, Haines displayed flashes of his brilliant offense as he did what champions do. And that’s win when you’re not at your best.
Levi ultimately pulled out the 10-8 decision and Penn State led Oregon State 16-0 going into the intermission.
Coming out of the break, both Mitch Mesenbrink and Carter Starocci were men on a mission. And that mission was to score as many points as humanly possible against some stiff competition.
Mesenbrink led off with 17-2 technical fall over No. 10 Matthew Olguin and Carter Starocci somehow one-upped Mitch with a 19-3 technical fall against No. 8 Travis Wittlake.
The dominance in both of those matches was simply a sight to see. Which unfortunately for the majority of Nittany Nation, they would not be able to witness until 3:00am tomorrow morning.
Thanks Pac-12 Network!
Moving on.
The matchup at 184 pounds appeared to be the highlight match of the night on paper with No. 2 Bernie Truax going up against No. 6 Trey Munoz. And it was certainly a nail biter.
Truax trailed 3-2 going into the final period and he needed a takedown to get the upper hand in the match and preserve the Penn State shutout.
However it was Munoz who landed the deciding blow in the final period to take the 5-2 decision. As I mentioned in my preview, Bernie was 4-1 head-to-head against Munoz prior to this match. But, it was Trey who had won the most recent match with a fall over Truax in the 2022 NCAA Championships. And, with this win it’s clear he has Bernie’s number.
At least for now.
Aaron Brooks then got the Nittany Lions point total moving again with the third technical fall of the night for Penn State. His 19-4 win pushed the score to 31-3 in favor of the Nittany Lions with one match remaining on the night.
Even though he was still banged up from his match against Lehigh, it was Greg Kerkvliet who took to the mat at 285 pounds against a worthy adversary.
But Kerk showed no signs of any lingering injuries as he bulldozed his way to a 21-5 technical fall over No. 12 Boone McDermott. This gave the Nittany Lions four technical falls on the night and tied a perfect ribbon on top of an amazing showing in Corvallis.
Next up for the Nittany Lions is their Big Ten opener as they host Indiana on Sunday, January 14th at 1:00pm.
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No. 1 Penn State 36 No. 16 Oregon State 3
125 Braeden Davis (PSU) dec. over No. 15 Brandon Kaylor (ORST) 11-6, PSU 3 ORST 0
133 No. 4 Aaron Nagao (PSU) major dec. over No. 26 Gabe Whisenhunt (ORST) 9-0, PSU 7 ORST 0
141 No. 2 Beau Bartlett (PSU) SV dec. over No. 25 Cleveland Belton (ORST) 8-5, PSU 10 ORST 0
149 Tyler Kasak (PSU) dec. over No. 11 Nash Singleton (ORST) 4-1, PSU 13 ORST 0
157 No. 1 Levi Haines (PSU) dec. over Isaiah Crosby (ORST) 10-8, PSU 16 ORST 0
165 No. 12 Mitch Mesenbrink (PSU) tech. fall over No. 10 Matthew Olguin (ORST) 17-2, PSU 21 ORST 0
174 No. 1 Carter Starocci (PSU) tech. fall over No. 8 Travis Wittlake (ORST) 19-3, PSU 26 ORST 0
184 No. 6 Trey Munoz (ORST) dec. over No. 2 Bernie Truax (PSU) 5-2, PSU 26 ORST 3
197 No. 1 Aaron Brooks (PSU) tech. fall over No. 30 Justin Rademacher (ORST) 19-4, PSU 31 ORST 3
285 No. 1 Greg Kerkvliet (PSU) tech. fall over No. 12 Boone McDermott (ORST) 21-5, PSU 36 ORST 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.