Teag Sanderson may or may not join the Penn State wrestling team someday, but he’s already making his mark on the State College wrestling scene.
Sanderson, the son of Penn State wrestling coach Cael Sanderson and nephew of assistant coach Cody Sanderson, wrestled at the PIAA West Regionals Saturday, Feb. 28, and went 4-0 with two bonus point wins.
In the first round, Sanderson, seeded first, took on Armstrong’s Kaleb Kinsey (No. 16) and tech-falled him, 21-5. Next up was No. 9 Carter Morvay of North Hills, who Sanderson dispatched, 15-1. The next two matches were a tougher for Sanderson.
He had his biggest scare of the weekend against Franklin Regional’s Ethan Cartwright. In the third period, Cartwright, seeded No. 13, took a 5-3 lead with a near-fall. Sanderson then got a reversal to tie the bout at five, but a technical violation on Sanderson with 54 seconds left gave Cartwright a 6-5 lead. Sanderson then got a near fall at the buzzer to win, 8-6.
The next match was less stressful for Sanderson.
Facing No. 2 Zach Labryer (Thomas Jefferson), Sanderson got out to a 12-2 lead and ended up bringing it home, 13-6. Overall, this was the continuation of what’s been a successful freshman season. He’s 38-9 with 29 of his wins being via bonus point(s), and has wrestled up to 189 pounds.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.As an eight grader last year, Sanderson became the Pennsylvania Junior Wrestling junior high state champ at 157 pounds.
He entered the tournament as a No. 20 seed but ended up dominating and winning the whole thing.
During the tournament, he won five bouts by fall, the last won being over a guy named, ironically enough, Cael Smith.
Sanderson will next wrestle in the PIAA state tournament, which is scheduled for March 5-7 at the Giant Center in Hershey.
