Penn State Wrestling: Big Ten Championships Session I LIVE FILE

QUARTERFINALS

No. 4 Jacob Van Dee (Nebraska) vs. No. 5 Aaron Nagao (Penn State)

Nagao advances with a 4-3 win.

Nagao 4, Van Dee 3

No. 3 Eric Barnett (Wisconsin) vs. No. 6 Braeden Davis (Penn State)

Barnett gets the scoring started with a first-period takedown. Davis enters the second period down 4-1, and Barnett start on top. Davis gets an escape point to make it 4-2, but Barnett ends with 2:34 of riding time. Davis then gets a near fall to make it 7-4, completely shifting the momentum. But wait, after review, it’s just a takedown, and Davis leads 5-4. A reversal in the last minute of the third period gives Barnett a 6-5 lead, and he has riding time locked up. Davis gets a reversal to make it 7-6, but the riding time sends it to sudden victory. Barnett gets called with an illegal move in sudden victory, and Davis wins.

With Barnett losing, No. 1 (Matt Ramos), No. 2 (Drake Ayala) and No. 3 (Barnett) all went down. Davis will now face Ayala, who he lost to in the regular season, in the semis.

184

No. 3 Bernie Truax (Penn State wrestling) vs. No. 14 Chase Mielnik (Maryland)

Penn State’s final first-round matchup ends with a 19-1 tech fall. Truax takes care of business.

Truax 19, Mielnik 1

149

No. 4 Tyler Kasak (Penn State wrestling) vs. No. 13 Aidan Vandenbush (Northwestern)

That didn’t take long. Kasak takes care of Vandenbush with a first-period pin.

Kasak pins Vandenbush

125

No. 6 Braeden Davis (Penn State wrestling) vs. No. 11 Justin Cardani (Illinois)

The first period is scoreless, but Davis takes control in the second with a reversal and near fall to make it 6-0. Cardani scores a point with a late escape, but Davis enters the third period up 6-1. In the third, Davis gets another near fall and ends up with a major.

Davis 11, Cardani 1

133

No. 5 Aaron Nagao (Penn State wrestling) vs. No. 12 Andrew Hampton (Michigan State)

Nagao dominates early, getting a takedown and a near fall to go ahead 7-0 in the first period. Hampton got a stall call on him to give Nagao another point. Nagao ends up getting a major.

Nagao 11, Hampton 0.

125

No. 6 Braeden Davis (Penn State wrestling) vs. No. 11 Justin Cardani (Illinois)

Penn State wrestling is going for its second straight Big Ten championship, and it all starts Saturday morning in College Park, Maryland. 

The conference championships will be broken up into four sessions, and it will look like this: 

• Session I (first round, quarterfinals, wrestlebacks)– 10 a.m. Saturday
• Session II (consolation matches, wrestlebacks)– 5 p.m. Saturday
• Session II (continued, semifinals)– 7 p.m. Saturday
• Session III (consolation semifinals, seventh place matches)– Noon Sunday
• Session IV (championship bouts)– 4:30 p.m. Sunday.

Nittany Sports Now will be covering the event in person Sunday, with Andy Stine making the trip to Maryland. Until then, he’s a live thread of session one.