People have known about PJ Duke since well before his Penn State wrestling career began.
He was arguably the best pound-for-pound wrestler in the country out of high school, and had a summer for the ages on the freestyle circuit.
But anytime a wrestler can score 20 points and major the top-ranked performer in the country at his weight class, that’s a story.
Facing Ohio State’s Brandon Cannon, Duke gave up a takedown in the first 15 seconds and fell behind 3-0. That’s about all that went wrong. Duke ended up scoring 20 of the next 24 points to move onto the semifinals.
Duke came into the tournament seeded No. 2, getting a buy into the quarterfinals. Because Cannon hadn’t wrestled since Jan. 23, he got the No. 7 seed, putting him on a course to meet Duke early. It’s possible that Cannon’s rust plays a factor in the outcome, but in any case, Duke has been dominant all season.
He came into the Big Ten Championships 16-1 with a 72.2.% bonus rate.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.The only person Duke has lost to in his college career thus far is the man who is seeded No. 1 at Big Tens: defending national champion Antrell Taylor. If Duke can win his semifinal match against Illinois’ Kannon Webster, there’s a good chance Duke will have the opportunity to avenge that loss.
Although Duke lost to Taylor, Taylor never took him down, getting a 2-1 win in a tiebreaker.
It looked for a moment like Duke had gotten a takedown in the first period, but it wasn’t ruled as such, and Penn State lost its challenge.
First now, Duke must worry about Webster.
