Penn State wrestling: Three takeaways from a 33-8 win over Rutgers
Penn State wrestling was without a national champion and on the road Friday night. However, neither disadvantage made a difference as the Nittany Lions rolled to a 33-8 triumph at Rutgers.
“Great crowd, and I’m sure a lot of them came because Penn State is the No. 1 team in the country,” Rutgers wrestling coach Scott Goodale said, per the Ashbury Park Press. “It was a great crowd. Our guys love wrestling here, it was awesome to see that. It’s pretty cool they were into it in the beginning, just gotta keep them into it, and we weren’t able to do that unfortunately.
Head coach Cael Sanderson’s Nittany Lions won eight of 10 matches to put them one step closer to clinching a Big Ten regular season title. That can happen Sunday when Penn State hosts Maryland at Rec Hall (1 p.m., BTN).
Before the Terps visit, though, it’s time to review our top takeaways from Friday night.
No RBY, no problem
Penn State wrestler Roman Bravo-Young has been given the freedom to pick and choose when he wants to take the mat during his final collegiate season. While many expected that he’d wrestle Friday and not Sunday this week, it appears it will be the opposite. Multi-time national champ ‘RBY’ was replaced in the lineup by at 133 pounds by Baylor Shunk. He dropped a 7-2 decision to No. 15 Joe Heilmann, which briefly put the Scarlet Knights up 8-0.
However, the deficit would be no match for the Lions’ lineup from there.
Penn State picked up the pace after two losses
Once Gary Steen lost by technical fall to Dean Patterson at 125 pounds as expected and Shunk wrestled for RBY, Penn State found itself in a 8-0 hole. However, starting with a major decision for Beau Bartlett over No. 12 Joseph Olivieri, Sanderson’s side ripped off eight straight wins, and six of them secured team bonus points.
Shayne Van Ness won by major decision at 149 pounds, as did Alex Facundo at 165, Carter Starocci at 174, and Max Dean at 197. Aaron Brooks, then, won by technical fall in the second period at 184, while Greg Kerkvliet secured a similar win in the first period.
Sanderson’s team appears to be peaking as March approaches, which is exactly where he wants it to be.
Lions are one step closer to perfection
Penn State has now won more than 40 consecutive dual meets in a row. It can cap off another perfect regular season by beating the Terps on Sunday. It will be heavily favored to do so inside of Rec Hall. Maryland brings just four ranked wrestlers to town. And, none of them are inside of the top 10 in their respective weight classes.
Expect Sanderson’s team to be ready to roll from the start in front of a wound up Rec Hall crowd.
