What to look for in each of Penn State wrestling’s final matches in the Big Ten tournament
Penn State’s dominance was on display Saturday at the Big Ten Wrestling Championships, as they sent six wrestlers onto Sunday’s finals and lead second-place Ohio State in the team scoring by 18.5 points.
This is the most finalists Penn State has had since the last time they won Big Tens, in 2016 — Jason Nolf and Bo Nickal’s freshman year. Penn State finished with 150.5 team points that year, and already have 131 this year, with two sessions left to wrestle.
For the Nittany Lions, who historically under-perform in the conference tournament and over-perform at NCAAs, Saturday’s results appear to be a good sign.
In addition to the six finalists, Penn State has three more still vying for third place. Only Devin Schnupp (125 pounds) was eliminated Saturday, meaning Penn State will automatically qualify nine of its 10 wrestlers for nationals in Pittsburgh.
The consolation semifinals and seventh-place matches start at 1 p.m. EST on Sunday, and first-, third- and fifth-place matches at 4 p.m. The the consolations and third- and fifth-place matches will be streamed live on BTN Plus and FloWrestling.org (paid subscription required). The finals will air on the Big Ten Network. Play-by-play by Jeff Byers will air on WRSC-AM 1390 or GoPSUsports’ LionVision.
Here’s what to look forward to in Penn State’s matchups on Sunday:
157 pound-final
No. 1 Jason Nolf (Penn State) vs. No. 2 Tyler Berger (Nebraska)
Before his 6-point win over Michigan’s Alec Pantaleo in the Big Ten quarterfinals on Saturday, Nolf’s closest win of the season had been his 6-point victory over Berger in Penn State’s dual against Nebraska in January. After that match, Nolf said that despite taking the Cornhusker down four times, he wasn’t satisfied with his performance, going on to say Berger’s style forced him to wrestle differently, causing him to give up a rare takedown.
“Subconsciously, I was more focused on keeping my hands down and avoiding him from darting in,” Nolf said in January. “As I was chasing him, I was trying to keep my hand down so it was kind of preventing me from getting to my offense a little bit, but I’ll adjust and make sure I do it next time.”
When asked prior to Big Tens whether he had made those adjustments, Nolf said he no longer remembered that match, but that he’s “improved a lot since then” — a statement that should be enough to scare even a national finalist contender.
That takedown — along with Berger’s tweet from January that he’d be “taking five heads home with me after the NCAA tournament and yes, that includes Jason Nolf’s” — is sure to put a fire under the Nittany Lion senior’s belly.
165 pound-final
No. 1 Vincenzo Joseph (Penn State) vs. No. 2 Alex Marinelli (Iowa)
The Big Ten finals so have have not been friendly to Joseph. The junior, who has gone 2-for-2 in the national finals against one of the better college wrestlers in recent memory in Isaiah Martinez, has yet to win a conference title. The Illini topped hm twice in the Big Ten finals.
Now, Joseph will face another one of the only three opponents to have beaten him in his college career in Iowa’s Alex Marinelli. Both wrestlers are undefeated so far this season.
Marinelli has looked confident all season long and seems as if he could be one of the biggest threats to Joseph’s third national title and chances to become the first four-timer in Penn State history.
Sunday’s matchup should reveal a lot about how well the two match up — one year after Joseph’s loss in the Bryce Jordan Center dual — and what caliber of challenge Marinelli will present Joseph in two weeks.
174 pound-final
No. 1 Mark Hall (Penn State) vs. No. 2 Myles Amine (Michigan)
Wrestling Amine should be becoming routine for the Nittany Lion junior, who has now topped his Michigan opponent three times in his career. However, Hall has never won by more than one point.
Hall said that wrestling just 30 minutes away from Apple Valley High School — where he became the first wrestler to win six Minnesota high school state titles — he’s wrestling better than he’s been wrestling so far this year. After already having beat the reigning national champ at 174, three other top-10 opponents, plus Oklahoma State’s Joseph Smith (who’s now at 165), Sunday’s rematch with Amine should be interesting.
Hall will have the chance to finally widen the gap with the Wolverine, but at 17-2 this season with a win over No. 2 Daniel Lewis, of Missouri, Amine is sure to not make things easy for the Nttany Lion.
184 pound-final
No. 2 Shakur Rasheed (Penn State) vs. No. 1 Myles Martin (Ohio state)
Rasheed’s performance Saturday helped erase some of the question marks surrounding his health and conditioning after missing six of the Nittany Lions’ past eight duals.
The senior used one of his trademark cross-face cradles to wrap up No. 10-seed Cameron Caffey, of Michigan State, in 5 minutes and 21 seconds.
Then, leading No. 3-seed Taylor Venz 5-3, Rasheed gave up the late takedown but was able to use all his strength to power through a cradle the Corhusker had locked up on him to win on riding time. From those two performances, it would appear Rasheed is back in shape to take on the 2016 national champ Myles Martin, of Ohio State.
So far this season, the closest margin of victory Martin has had was an 8-4 decision of Illinois’ Emery Parker, and Martin is a heavy favorite to win his second national title — now that Bo Nickal moved up a weight class. However, he has yet to wrestle Rasheed.
Sunday’s match should show how much of a threat — if any — Rasheed is to Martin’s national title hopes.
197 pound-final
No. 1 Bo Nickal (Penn State) vs. No. 2 Kollin Moore (Ohio State)
The last time this match happened, it was over quickly, as Nickal pinned the Buckeye in 1:28.
Unlike in this year’s Southern Scuffle, where he pinned his way through the tournament, Nickal has yet to record a pin at Big Tens. It’s quite possible he’s saving that pin for last.
Either way, Moore, like many other of the Nittany Lions’ finalist opponents, seems likely to be someone Nickal could face deep in the NCAA tournament.
Also, for those keeping track — which would not include Nickal or Nolf themselves — Nickal has fallen three pins behind his teammate in the race for who will finish his career as the all-time leader in pins for the Nitany Lions. Not only would another pin help close that gap but help Nickal retain his slight edge on Nolf in Hodge Trophy running.
285 pound-final
No. 2 Anthony Cassar (Penn State) vs. No. 1 Gable Steveson (Minnesota)
Since the advent of more athletic heavyweights — such as Ohio State’s Kyle Snyder the previous three years, and Minnesota’s Gable Steveson and Penn State’s Anthony Cassar this year — more and more people are staying in their seats at duals to watch the final bout.
This matchup Sunday afternoon is certain to be one nobody’s going to want to miss.
Neither wrestler is going to be afraid to go for the big move against the other. Get ready for the bleachers to shake at Williams Arena.
A a three time age-level world champ, Steveson is penciled in by many people as a four-time national champ before he ever set foot on a college mat. Steveson has sailed through the season so far as a true freshman, including an 8-2 decision over Oklahoma’s Derek White in his varsity debut. Cassar owns his one loss of the season to White.
However, Steveson has yet to face Cassar, the one heavyweight who might be able to match his athleticism.
Regardless of the end result, Sunday’s heavyweight final should be fun for all fans to watch.
Consolations
The finals won’t be the only place Penn State fans can find exciting matchups on Sunday. Penn State has three wrestlers battling in the consolation round — No. 4 Roman Bravo-Young (133), No. 2 Nick Lee (141) and No. 6 Brady Berge (149) — and each will face challenging opponents Sunday morning.
One of the more interesting matchups comes at 133, where Bravo-Young will take on Iowa’s volatile sophomore, Austin DeSanto. Remembered in Pennsylvania as the Exeter wrestler who stopped Frank Regional’s Spencer Lee from winning is fourth state title in 2017 and from going undefeated in his high school career, DeSanto has become known in college for his nonstop motor, and for his antics at the end of matches.
Both DeSanto and Bravo-Young are quick and athletic, which should be a recipe for a high-paced matchup. This match will also be crucial for Bravo-Young in improving his chances for a higher NCAA seed, which could set him up with an easier path to becoming an All-American in one of the nation’s most loaded weight classes.
Berge and Lee will both have the chance to come back from their losses to Buckeyes, when they take on two Wisconsin opponents they lost to earlier in the season.
Against Tristan Moran in January, Lee pushed most of the action, but the lengthy Moran was able to reach around and counter. Since then, both Lee and his head coach, Cael Sanderson, have said finishing shots was an area they were actively working on to improve.
In his previous match against Cole Martin, Berge was leading 6-3 in the first period with over a minute in riding time before running out of gas and giving up two takedowns. The redshirt freshman has missed five of Penn State’s past seven dual for unspecified reasons but was able to keep his gas tank going through the second sudden-victory period to beat Iowa’s No. 3 seed Pat Lugo in the quarterfinals on Saturday.
All three wrestlers still have the chance to finish as high as third place, and no lower than sixth.
This story was originally published March 10, 2019 at 10:58 AM.
