Penn State wrestling sent eight of its 10 starters to the NCAA quarterfinals Thursday night.
Penn State Surges Into Quarterfinals as NCAA Championships Open With Statement
Each of PSU’s seven No. 1 seeds went 2-0, as did No. 3 Marcus Blaze (133).
Now, all that stands between these eight and national title glory are three wins.
Getting those wins is much easier said than done, of course, and the work will begin Friday afternoon during the quarterfinal round.
Of the eight matches, we’ve already seen six of them at once, and two of them twice.
Blaze and fellow lightweight Luke Lilledahl (125) each are 2-0 against their Iowa counterparts, who they’ll be meeting once again.
Here’s a breakdown of each of the eight matchups.
125
No. 1 Luke Lilledahl (Penn State) vs. No. 8 Dean Peterson (Iowa)
Peterson was a thorn in Lilledahl’s side once upon a time. When Peterson was at Rutgers last season, he became the first person to hand Lilledahl a loss at the college level and was happy to gloat about it afterward.
But any idea that Peterson would have Lilledahl’s number went away on a cold January night in Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
Peterson, now with Iowa, took on Lilledahl to kick off this year’s Penn State-Iowa dual meet.
Lilledahl avenged the previous year’s setback with an 11-5 win over Peterson, and then got the upper hand in the series earlier this month at the Big Ten Championships with an 8-3’win in the quarterfinal.
Lilledahl is now in the national quarterfinal by virtue of beating Missouri’s Mack Mauger 11-2 and West Virginia’s Jett Strickenberger 4-2.
Peterson beat Nebraska’s Kael Lauridsen 9-1 and then Oregon State’s Maximo Renteria 4-1.
133
No. 3 Marcus Blaze (Penn State) vs. No. 6 Drake Ayala (Iowa)
Another Nittany Lions-Hawkeyes matchup, and similarly, Blaze is 2-0 against Ayala this season, beating him at Carver (4-2) and then at Big Tens (4-1 in sudden victory to advance to the finals).
Blaze is cruising so far at NCAAs, winning his first two matches by a combined 34-4.
Ayala hasn’t been too shabby, either, majoring Marcel Lopez of SIU Edwardsville 11-1 and then tech-falling No. 11 Tyler Ferrara (Cornell) 19-4.
149
No. 1 Shayne Van Ness (Penn State) vs. No. 8 Casey Swiderski (Oklahoma State)
This is the rare quarterfinal matchup that hasn’t happened before. Van Ness went 2-0 on the day by tech-falling Brown’s Austin McBurney and then pinning No. 16 Jacob Frost (Iowa State)
Swiderski is 14-5 on the season and got to the quarters with a 7-2 win over Illinois’ Michael Gioffre and a 14-4 major over former Nittany Lion David Evans, who now wrestles at Utah Valley.
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No. 1 PJ Duke (Penn State) vs. No. 8 Brandon Cannon (Ohio State)
We haven’t seen this matchup in… 13 days.
That’s when Duke dispatched of Cannon, 20-7, in the Big Ten quarterfinals.
Duke ended up winning the tournament and being named its Most Outstanding Wrestler, and he’s kept rocking and rolling in Cleveland, pinning his first two opponents. Cannon got to the quarterfinals with wins over Central Michigan’s Mason Shrader (9-4) and Stanford’s Daniel Cardenas (No. 9) 8-7.
When Cannon is healthy, he’s as good as anybody in the country, having been ranked No. 1 before the Big Ten championship.
165
No. 1 Mitchell Mesenbrink (Penn State) vs. No. 9 Bryce Hepner (North Carolina)
This is another rare matchup in these quarters that hasn’t happened this season. But Mesenbrink and Hepner have wrestled before.
In February 2024, Mesenbrink took on Hepner, then of Ohio State, inside Rec Hall, beating him 10-4 in a rare non-bonus point win. Hepner probably won’t be so lucky this time around.
Mesenbrink improved to 24-0 with 24 bonus point wins, adding two more Thursday, tech-falling Drexel’s Cody Walsh 21-5 and majoring No. 16 Paddy Gallagher (Ohio State) 12-0 with 3:10 of riding time.
Hepner beat Penn’s Sean Seefeldt 11-4 and then shutout No. 8 Matt Bianchi (Little Rock) 3-0.
174
No. 1 Levi Haines (Penn State) vs. No. 9 Beau Mantanona (Michigan)
This match happened in the dual meet season, and it wasn’t close. Haines tech-falled Mantanona 19-4 in Ann Arbor. Since then, Haines has gone onto win his fourth Big Ten title and is off to a hot start at NCAA’s, too, winning his first two bouts. He pinned Bellarmine’s Grant O’Dell, then tech’d Columbia’s Nick Fine 21-5.
Mantanona beat Ohio’s Garrett Thompson 7-3, then beat No. 8 Alex Facundo of Oklahoma State— formerly of Penn State— by the same score.
184
No. 1 Rocco Welsh (Penn State) vs. No. 8 Silas Allred (Nebraska)
Welsh and Allred met in January when Nebraska traveled to Penn State for a showdown in the Bryce Jordan Center. Welsh won that bout in convincing fashion with a 14-5 major. The Pride of Waynesburg, Pennsylvania has gone onto win a Big Ten championship, and is 2-0 at nationals so far with a tech fall over Utah Valley’s Caleb Uhlenhopp and a major over No. 16 Rylan Rogers (Lehigh).
Allred beat George Mason’s Malachi DuVall 3-1 and then majored No. 9 Chris Moore (Illinois) 15-5.
197
No. 1 Josh Barr (Penn State) vs. No. 9 Angelo Posada (Stanford)
Barr and Posada met earlier this season, when Penn State took on Stanford in December. Barr took care of business with a 19-3 tech fall. Since then Barr has won 19 straight bouts, all via bonus points. The most recent two took place Thursday night, with a 20-4 tech fall over Kent State’s Blake Schaffer and an 11-3 major decision over No. 17 Dillon Bechtold (Bucknell).
Posada started his tournament with a fall over Rider’s Brock Zurawski and a 9-4 decision over No. 25 Evan Bates (Missouri).
Session III of the NCAA Wrestling Championships is scheduled to begin at noon, with Session IV to follow at 8.
