Welcome to another edition of the Penn State wrestling notebook.
It’s easy to forget that Nebraska is the No. 4 team in the nation after Penn State wrestling got a 31-7 win over the Cornhuskers in Lincoln Friday night.
Their entire lineup is filled with wrestlers ranked by InterMat, and still the Cornhuskers managed to get just two wins out of the 10 bouts.
“Nebraska has a great team. That was a nice environment. You knew it was going to be a big match,” PSU coach Cael Sanderson said. “You get a lot of good information on what we can do better when you get that kind of competition. We didn’t wrestle great, but we wrestled well enough.”
“I think those Nebraska guys are deceiving,” Lions 184-pounder Carter Starocci said. “They have a good crowd. Their coaches get fired up. You look at their bench and everyone is standing up. You think, ‘This isn’t going to be a good match at all.’ For us, it’s all about taking care of business and leaving.”
The only two that took losses for PSU were Braeden Davis and Shayne Van Ness. Sanderson said that Van Ness, who was major decisioned by second-ranked Ridge Lovett, could have a rematch in the NCAA finals.
“Shayne is a guy that just gets better and better,” Sanderson said. “He’s going to get better at a fast rate because he hasn’t had that many matches in his career here. I’m not worried about Shayne. He’ll be good. He ran into a tough kid.
“I think he’s starting to grow up and mature in all areas. He’s always been just kind of a killer mentality-wise as a competitor. He’s becoming a great leader for us, and just a consistent guy you can count on. Shayne is on a good path. He’s working hard. He’s been very consistent.”
One of the most thrilling matches of the night came as Beau Bartlett got a reversal in the final seconds at 141 pounds to beat sixth-ranked Brock Hardy 8-7.
“I think when he really wants to score, it’s hard to stop him,” Sanderson said. “You don’t like to see matches come down to the end like that, and again, that’s one of the top guys in the country. Beau did what he needed to do to win the match. He just has the ability to pull those kinds of matches out.”
NATIONAL DUALS RETURNING?
David Taylor file photo from TeamUSA.org
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.Oklahoma State coach and Nittany Lion legend David Taylor took to X last week in support of bringing back national duals. Some programs wrestled in the NWCA national duals earlier this month for the first time since 2017.
“We should bring back national duals,” Taylor wrote. “Do it in November before conference competitions.”
We should bring back National Duals. Do it in November before conference competitions
— David Taylor (@magicman_osu) January 14, 2025
Not everyone shares the same desire as Taylor, including Sanderson.
“I don’t feel really any differently about it than I did 10 years ago,” Sanderson said. “I think you can create a big event without including every team in the country. It’s sad that we think we have to have the national duals to create a big event. We have a lot of exciting teams, a lot of up-and-coming programs.
“There’s obviously some merit to the idea, but it’s just kind of a broken record, I think.”
STAROCCI ADJUSTING
Photo by Penn State Athletics: Carter Starocci
Starocci wrote on X over the offseason that he would be eating steaks this year rather than constantly cutting weight at 184 pounds.
It turns out that Starocci is still cutting weight just as hard as he was when still competing at 174 pounds.
“At first, I was underweight a lot. Now it’s kind of a harder weight cut than it was for 74,” Starocci said. “It’s nice feeling strong, but you just have to adapt.”
