One of the most anticipated bouts of the Penn State wrestling regular season is unlikely to take place.
In a perfect world, true freshman sensation PJ Duke, ranked No. 4 at the 157-pound weight class, would be taking on the No. 1 wrestler in that class in Ohio State’s Brandon Cannon.
But Cannon suffered a knee injury against Minnesota late last month. He hasn’t wrestled a competitive match since, and is not listed among Ohio State’s probables.
As much of a bummer as it would be for these two not to wrestle in front of a sold-out crowd at the Bryce Jordan Center, Penn State and coach Cael Sanderson only worry about the things they can control.
What Duke can control is winning. He’s done that consistently this year (15.1, 68.7% bonus rate) and did it again last Friday night.
A THRILLER IN ANN ARBOR
Going into last week’s dual meet against No. 10 Michigan in Ann Arbor, fans were interested to see how Duke would respond to his first college loss.
84: Penn State Wrestling Pounds Michigan Ahead of Mega Dual With Ohio State
The previous Friday at the BJC, Duke wrestled defending national champion Antrell Taylor of Nebraska and didn’t allow a takedown.
But in a tough match, Taylor pulled out a 2-1 win in a tiebreaker.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.Duke had another tough customer against Michigan in Cam Catrabone, another true freshman who Duke wrestled in high school.
Catrabone, ranked No. 13, gave Duke the first takedown of his career and led 9-7 in the final minute.
But Duke never lost his poise, securing an escape and then a takedown to lead 11-9, and ultimately won 12-10.
Talking with reporters Wednesday afternoon, Sanderson broke down Duke’s latest bout.
“Obviously, (Catrabone is) a tough competitor and somebody he has wrestled before,” Sanderson said. “They’ve had close matches in high school. But to be able to respond the way he did and kind of battle through the match, where he fell behind, and then he gave up another point because he had a stinger and just kind of keep his composure and the momentum, potential shifts. I think that’s obviously really impressive that he just didn’t give up, didn’t get frustrated. Just went and got it done.”
LOOKING AHEAD
Right now, Ohio State’s website has redshirt freshman Landon Desselle taking on Duke.
But for fans who want to look ahead, there is a good chance that Duke will take on Cannon in March at the Big Ten Championships, which happen to be in State College March 7-8.
True freshmen like Duke don’t come along very often, and Sanderson understands that.
“He’s a special guy, obviously,” he said. “I mean, he’s a competitor. He’s very talented, and if you watch him all year, he gets after it. I mean, he’s figuring out how to score on guys that are maybe a little bit more defensive on him, and just some of those tactics. But, yeah, when he needs to go score, and he has the urgency to score, he scores. So, it’s pretty awesome.”
No. 1 Penn State vs. No 2 Ohio State is scheduled to begin at 7:00 on the Big Ten Network.
