Penn State wrestling has made history in a comical amount of ways since Cael Sanderson took over as head coach in 2009.
But the program has never accomplished this.
Six of Penn State wrestling’s 10 starters are No. 1 in InterMat’s latest batch of rankings.
No team has ever accomplished that before.
At 125, Luke Lilledahl moves from No. 2 to No. 1 followed him getting revenge over Iowa’s Dean Peterson and following that up with a tech fall over Northwestern’s Dedrick Navarro.
Luke Lilledahl Gets Revenge, Penn State Wrestling Starts Hot at Iowa
At 149, Shayne Van Ness remains No. 1 after a 2-0 weekend where he majored a top 20 opponent in Iowa’s Ryder Block (No. 17) and then took care of Northwestern’s August Hilber via tech fall. At 165, Penn State has arguably the best wrestler in the country at any weight in Mitchell Mesenbrink. Mesenbrink stayed No. 1 after majoring one of the best in the business in Iowa’s Mikey Caliendo (No. 3). Then, when it came time to wrestle Northwestern, Mesenbrink didn’t get the chance to compete because Northwestern forfeited the bout.
At 174, Levi Haines also has a claim for best pound for pound wrestler in the country.
Haines got past a talented Gabe Arnold against Iowa, winning 4-2, then tech falled Northwestern’s Eddie Enright.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.At 184, Penn State has another new No. 1 in Rocco Welsh.
Welsh was No. 4 last week, and had a chance to make a statement against the previous No. 1 in Iowa’s Angelo Ferrari. Welsh capitalized on the chance, beating Ferrari 2-1 in a second tiebreaker. He followed that up with a much less dramatic tech fall of Northwestern’s J.D. Perez.
There’s no change at 197.
Josh Barr came into the week ranked No. 1 and stayed there, with pins over Iowa’s Brody Sampson and Northwestern’s Alex Smith.
What’s even scarier is that, of the four Penn State wrestlers not ranked No. 1, two of them (Marcus Blaze at 133, PJ Duke at 157) are ranked in the top four and the other two (Braeden Davis at 141, Cole Mirasola at Heavyweight) are ranked just outside the top 10.
Blaze, a true freshman, is ranked No. 4 at his weight class, and Duke, another true freshman, is ranked No. 3 at his. Don’t be surprised to see both of them at No. 1 sooner rather than later.
Davis, who fell to Iowa’s Nasir Bailey 3-2 Friday night, is No. 11, just behind Bailey, who is No. 10.
Mirasola got an upset win over Iowa’s Ben Kueter, who came into the bout at No. 5, and thus moved up from No. 13 to No. 12.
