Penn State wrestling outdid itself yet again over the weekend en route to its fourth consecutive conference championship.
PSU scored 184 team points, breaking the school record set by last year’s team (181.5).
Penn State also had seven individual conference champions, also breaking last year’s school record (5).
The total conference records for team points and individual champions still belong to 1983 Iowa. which had 200 points and nine conference champs. That was when Iowa was the cream of the crop on NCAA wrestling under legendary coach Dan Gable. Now, Cael Sanderson and Penn State run the show, and Iowa isn’t the among the conference’s top three programs.
The only teams to eclipse 100 points aside from Penn State were Ohio State (147.5) and Nebraska (116.5). Iowa finished in fourth with 87 points.
Penn State had competitors in eight of the 10 Big Ten championship matches, with seven of them being victorious.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.What’s even more concerning for every other program is that the one Penn State finalist who didn’t win it all, Marcus Blaze, is as talented as anybody in the country at 133 pounds and hadn’t lost a match this season before falling to Ohio State’s Ben Davino in a second tiebreaker.
Whatever ground Ohio State had gained on Penn State was lost two matches later, when No. 1 Shayne Van Ness pinned No. 2 Ethan Stiles at 149.
It’s possible that this is when Penn State clinched the team title, and if it isn’t, No. 1 PJ Duke’s major decision over No. 2 Antrell Taylor (Nebraska) sealed the deal.
Penn State will look for (and probably get) its 13th national championship in 15 years in Cleveland. The national championships are scheduled to begin Thursday, March 19 and run through Saturday, March 21.
