Following his third-place finish in the 2022 NCAAs, one could say that Penn State Wrestling’s Shayne Van Ness came out of the gates strong last year.
Because with his showing in the 2023 Journeymen Classic in early November, it was hard to tell whether there was a human in that Nittany Lions singlet or a Cat D11.
Van Ness absolutely plowed his way through the field in Bethlehem by winning all three matches via pin. And in the end, Shayne spent a total of five minutes and 34 seconds on the mat. Which was just a little more than the normal allotted time for two full periods.
And his domination on the mat didn’t go unnoticed as SVN was named the B1G Wrestler of the Week that week.
🔥B1G WOW!
🦁Shayne Van Ness is the B1G Wrestler of the Week!
🤝Shares this week's honor with Wisconsin's Dean Hamiti…
💻Read it at GoPSUsports!#PSUwr https://t.co/Y2KUn3Ovvg pic.twitter.com/73pWNhegVz— Penn State WRESTLING (@pennstateWREST) November 14, 2023
Unfortunately for Van Ness, his season didn’t progress any further than that Sunday in Pennsylvania. Because as soon as the calendar flipped to December, this news came out of the Penn State Wrestling room.
It was a gut punch to Penn State fans.
However, as I and all of the other Nittany Lion faithful know, Cael Sanderson and his staff had a plan in place.
And, in Cael you should always trust.
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What Tyler Kasak did last season was nothing short of impossible. He moved up a weight class and the Penn State Wrestling machine didn’t really skip a beat. And with his third place finish in the 2023 NCAA Championships, Kasak actually did something that no other true freshman had ever done before. Which was to lose their opening round match and then rip off seven straight wins to take home third.
Shayne Van Ness will be back and better than ever
But going back to that gut punch following the injury news. If it was a blow to the Penn State faithful, imagine what it was like for Shayne?
As I’ve stated many times before, wrestlers are some of the most motivated and hard working athletes I have ever been around. You know Van Ness wasn’t just sitting around in the offseason on the couch eating Philly Cheesesteak Pringles and staring at his awards.
Nope.
He was working his tail off in the wrestling room trying to be an even better version of himself on the mat. And all of that hard work culminated in three matches and his entire season was over. Which had to a tough pill to swallow.
For some people injures can be demoralizing. But for other people they can be motivating.
And if I was a betting man, I would bet the house on SVN coming back better than ever.
Penn State Wrestling churns out championship wrestlers at an crazy clip. Because yeah, it helps to have amazing facilities and the best coach in the country.
But it also helps to have guys like Shayne Van Ness in the room. And if his injury is fully healed, then I don’t see anyone getting in his way this year.
The season is now a little more than a week away. So Nittany Lions fans will find out soon enough.
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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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