Penn State wrestling podcast: Recapping Lions' latest milestones, looking ahead to Nebraska
Penn State wrestling continues its lengthy streak of being called the nation’s No. 1 team ahead of its penultimate dual match of the 2023-2024 season. The Nittany Lions welcome No. 4 Nebraska to town on Sunday with hopes of clinching the Big Ten regular season wrestling title. It would add to an already impressive list of accomplishments this year that includes head coach Cael Sanderson’s 200th win in blue and white plus the program’s 1,000th all-time dual meet triumph. But, it’s hardly the sole, or even the most important, focus for the Lions in mid-February.
The team is, instead, focused on being in the best possible shape for the national tournament in March. What it does this weekend against the Cornhuskers, next weekend against Edinboro, and at the Big Ten tournament will set Penn State up for future success. We discuss both the recent wins over Iowa and Rutgers plus preview the Rutgers match in this week’s episode. You can watch it in the video player above. A new episode of the Penn State wrestling show is available to watch in the video player above. Want to listen? Podcast links: SPOTIFY, APPLE.
Penn State wrestling notes: A Tyler Kasak update, thoughts on the program’s 1,000th dual win, more
“I’m not worried about, of course, I hate losing,” Sanderson said this week. “I want to be the best team, I want to think that our best teams are always coming as a coach and as a program. But I’m thinking more about performance. I’m not looking back at these matches, like, ‘oh, well, we won this one by a point. That’s great.’ We’re looking at, like, how can our kids get better? How can we get their minds to where they can wrestle a little bit more freely, or whatever?
“We’re not worried about the wins and the losses, which I think that’s a higher standard. And you can avoid the ups and the downs that you you’re going to get if you’re thinking about judging your success off of wins and losses. There’s a higher standard. And that’s what we try to focus on. I know that’s what we focus on as a staff. We’re just consistent. Whether we win the Nationals or not, we’ll be in here Monday at 1:30 for the NLWC. It’s a heck of a lot more fun to win. So, anything we can do to do that, we’ll do the work.”
Author’s note: Pickel omitted the ranked match between Bernie Truax and Lenny Pinto at 184 pounds when discussing the upper weight portion of the Penn State-Nebraska match. He apologizes for the error but stands by the point that if the Lions need a points push to win in the upper weights, they will get it.
