Marcus Blaze is making a statement for Penn State wrestling early in these NCAA Championships.
Having scored just one point in his Big Ten championship loss to Ohio State’s Ben Davino earlier this month, many felt Blaze needed to be more aggressive.
If Blaze’s goal was to be more aggressive, he’s accomplishing it so far in Cleveland.
In the true freshman’s first-ever NCAA Championship match, he took on Oregon State’s Gabe Whisenhunt (No. 30).
Blaze rolled to a 17-2 tech fall in a bout that took five minutes and 30 seconds and giving Penn State five team points to start the day.
In Blaze’s Round of 16 match against Missouri’s Gage Walker (No. 19), Blaze won by the same 17-2 score, giving him 34 points through two matches.
The true freshman came to Penn State as one of the most hyped recruits in program history.
The Perrysburg, Ohio star won his fourth state championship last year and did so jumping up from 138 to 150 pounds. This versatility is part of why Blaze started at Penn State right away. In college, everybody knew Blaze would be competing at either 133 and 141.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.Blaze ended up starting out his career at 133, and until the Big Ten final, he was unbeaten.
He came into the NCAA Championships 21-1 with more than 77% of his wins being of the bonus point variety.
In his loss to Davino— a 2-2 nail biter that Davino won after two tiebreakers due to having more riding time— some felt that Blaze wasn’t aggressive enough, which led to the low scoring.
That wasn’t an issue in Blaze’s first two matches of the NCAA Championships.
To win a national title as a true freshman, there’s a good chance Blaze sees Davino again. Blaze won the first bout (Feb. 13 dual meet at the Bryce Jordan Center) in a first tiebreaker 3-2.
Blaze could well wrestle Jax Forrest, Oklahoma State’s No. 1 seed who is also a true freshman.
Before Blaze can worry about either of those guys, he has to take on No. 6 Drake Ayala (Iowa), who he beat once in the regular season and then again in the Big Ten Championships.
