Penn State wrestling went 6-0 in the quarterfinals and are in first place for the overall team championship with 73.0 points in the 2022 NCAA Wrestling Championships.
This includes a historic performance from Nick Lee, who became Penn State’s first five-time All-American.
Two matches at 11:00 a.m. kicked things off for Penn State. Drew Hildebrandt took on Brody Teske of Northern Illinois in the consolation bracket and Roman Bravo-Young took on Brian Courtney of Virginia in the quarterfinals.
It was a tough match for Hildebrandt, who quickly fell behind 4-1 against Teske. After an escape and a takedown, Hildebrandt managed to tie things up at 4-4. After that, however, it was all Teske who came away with the 8-4 decision.
Bravo-Young was the first Penn State wrestler to advance to the semi-finals and earn All-American status with a dominating performance over Courtney. Bravo-Young started the match off with a takedown to take a 2-0 lead that he never relinquished.
He took a 2-1 lead into the second and expanded that to 8-3 before the end of the period. He ended up winning the match with a 13-6 decision.
The four-time All-American will face Iowa’s Austin DeSanto in the semifinals.
Lee immediately followed Bravo-Young on the same mat with his match against Grant Willits of Oregon State. His match was even more dominating than Bravo-Young’s before him. Lee quickly jumped out to a 3-0 lead before getting the pin at the 3:45 mark. Lee’s win made him Penn State’s first five-time All-American and he is still the favorite to win the 141 weight class title. He will take on Stanford’s Real Woods later tonight.
Next for Penn State was its second consolation match of the third session. Beau Bartlett took on Yahya Thomas of Northwestern. An escape to start followed by a takedown gave Thomas the 3-0 lead early. Two consecutive escapes pulled Bartlett within one at 3-2, but another Thomas takedown sealed it. Bartlett would get one more point in the 5-3 decision loss to Thomas.
Brady Berge picked up Penn State’s first win of the session in the consolation bracket after defeating Johnny Lovett of CMU by decision, 4-3. Berge got things started with a takedown late in the first to take a 2-0 lead over Lovett however an escape sent the score to 2-1 into the second.
Berge started the second with an escape to take a 3-1, which were the only points of the period.
Lovett had a reversal to start the third to tie things up 3-3, but an escape by Berge gave him the victory. Berge would have his second match in the session hours later against Peyton Robb of Nebraska, but couldn’t capture the same magic and fell by a 8-3 decision.
Carter Satorcci had no problem putting away Nebraska’s Mikey Labriola. Satorcci took a 6-1 decision with 2:09 in riding time to advance to the semifinals. He will face Hayden Hidlay of NC State in the next round.
Continuing Penn State’s dominant performance in the quarterfinals was Aaron Brooks who won a 13-2 major decision over Kaleb Romero of Ohio State.
Brooks then scored seven straight points to take a 9-1 lead, at which point the victory was already in-hand. Brooks took the victory with the 13-2 major decision and over two minutes (2:09) of riding time. He will face NC State’s Trent Hidlay in the semifinals.
After a long day of dominating performances for Penn State in the quarterfinals, the team finally had a scare in the round when Dean faced-off against Lou Deprez of Binghamton in the 197 quarterfinals. Dean started from behind after a takedown by Deprez and escape by Dean made it 2-1 in the first. Dean tied things up with an escape to start the second to make it 2-2, but Deprez had a full-minute of riding time meaning he was still in line for the victory.
Dean managed to get a takedown in the second, but it wasn’t ruled as such. Penn State threw the challenge brick and got it back after an official review gave him the takedown. Deprez got the riding time point and the final score was 4-3 as Dean got his third All-American nod and moved on to the semifinals to face Ohio State’s Gavin Hoffman.
Next up for Penn State was Greg Kerkvliet who fared against Christian Lance of Nebraska in Penn State’s last quarterfinal match. It was a return to normal for the team. Kerkvliet had no issue putting away Lance. With a 7-1 victory and an astonishing 4:09 riding time, Kervliet earned his second All-American nod and will face Gable Steveson of Minnesota in the semifinals.
