Penn State sends 6 to NCAA wrestling semifinals, extends team lead

(Note: You can find an updated story on how Penn State fared Friday in the NCAA Wrestling Championships right here. The story below was written between sessions as a mid-day update Friday.)

As good as the first day of the NCAA wrestling championships were for Penn State, the second day started off a little rocky.

Yes, the Nittany Lions went a perfect 6-0 in the quarterfinals to advance six wrestlers to the semis. However, Brady Berge and Shakur Rasheed were both eliminated.

Penn State still leads the team race with 80 points.

Wrestling resumes at 8 p.m. Friday to set up the championship matches. Here’s a look at how each wrestler did during the third session Friday:

133 Pounds: Roman Bravo-Young (No. 10 seed)

Tournament record: 3-1

Current round: Consolation Fourth Round

Recap: Bravo-Young rebounded nicely after suffering a heartbreaking 7-2 loss to Iowa’s Austin DeSanto on Thursday night in a match he seemed to have won.

The true freshman took on Cornell’s Charles Tucker (No. 9 seed) in the second round of consolations. He controlled the pace from the get-go. RBY used his quick pace to record two takedowns with ease, confusing Tucker with misdirection shots. Bravo-Young did enough riding to collect a riding-time point for a 6-3 win to remain alive.

In the third round of consolations, RBY showed true grit to stay alive and get one win away from reaching All-America status. He took on Purdue’s Ben Thornton (No. 15 seed), whom Bravo-Young suffered an injury against in the team’s dual in January. The Tuscon, Ariz., native scored the bout’s first points with a takedown late in the first period. The pair then traded escapes. Thornton was in on a deep shot attempt near the end of the match but didn’t have enough time to convert. RBY won 3-1.

141 Pounds: Nick Lee (No. 3 seed)

Tournament record: 3-0

Current round: Semifinals

Recap: Lee kept rolling on Day 2, but it took a little bit of time. Lee took on Iowa’s Max Murin (No. 22 seed) in the quarterfinals and didn’t score the match’s first points until an escape in the second period.

The Hawkeye didn’t go away after recording an escape with 1:20 left in the match. Lee finally broke through for his offense with a takedown 51 seconds left in the match. He then rode Murin out for the rest of the period and a 4-1 win to reach the semifinals.

Lee takes on Ohio State’s Joey McKenna (No. 2 seed) for a spot in the finals on Friday night.

149 Pounds: Brady Berge (No. 12 seed)

Tournament record: 2-2

Current round: Eliminated

Recap: Berge was able to shake off his loss on Thursday night, but that sense of relief didn’t last long.

Berge fell in the third round of consolations Friday after a tight bout against Minnesota’s Tommy Thorn (No. 20 seed). He was tied 2-2 after two periods and chose to start the third period with the surprising choice of neutral. Neither wrestler was able to score any points in the third period. Thorn got off a shot immediately in the sudden-victory period, and the pair scrambled. Berge seemed to let go of Thorn’s leg to look for better positioning, but it backfired. Thorn was awarded a takedown, and a 4-2 win, thus eliminating Berge.

In the second round of consolations, Berge stuck to his game and didn’t force anything against George Mason’s Tejon Anthony (No. 27 seed).

Berge scored the first points of the match with a takedown in the first period. He got an escape in the second period to lead 3-0 heading to final frame. Berge added another takedown on a slick low single, and earned a riding-time point to win 6-2. Unfortunately for PSU fans, that proved to be his final victory of the tournament.

157 Pounds: Jason Nolf (No. 1 seed)

Tournament record: 3-0

Current round: Semifinals

Recap: Nolf continued to do Nolf things on Friday morning against Arizona State’s Christian Pagdilao (No. 9 seed). The two squared off in the dual back in December with Nolf earning an 18-5 major decision.

The result was the same this time around, but Nolf earned more bonus points. The redshirt senior snapped off four first-period takedowns to lead 8-3 after one period. In the second period, Nolf led 10-3 before nearly pinning Pagdilao. The third period opened with Nolf leading 14-3. He continued with the constant pressure to nine more third-period points and a 23-6 technical fall at the buzzer.

Nolf takes on North Carolina State’s Hayden Hidlay (No. 5 seed), who is a Mifflin County grad, in a rematch of the last year’s NCAA finals.

165 Pounds: Vincenzo Joseph (No. 2 seed)

Tournament record: 3-0

Current round: Semifinals

Recap: Joseph got matched up with a familiar foe in Nebraska’s Isaiah White (No. 7 seed) in the quarterfinals. White nearly kept Joseph from repeating as a champion last season, but Joseph earned a 4-2 sudden-victory win last year to reach the semifinals.

Joseph again got past White to make the semifinals this year. And it was also another sudden-victory decision. The pair were tied 1-1 after three periods and trading escapes. The Pittsburgh kid got a takedown with 26 seconds left in the sudden-victory period for the 3-1 advancement win.

Pittsburgh fans will get to reminisce in Joseph’s semifinals match as he takes on a fellow Pittsburgher Arizona State’s Joshua Shields (No. 3 seed).

174 Pounds: Mark Hall (No. 1 seed)

Tournament record: 3-0

Current round: Semifinals

Recap: Hall took on a familiar foe in Northern Iowa’s Taylor Lujan (No. 8 seed). The pair squared off in the quarterfinals last year with Hall coming away with a 6-2 win.

This year, the result was the same a win for Hall, but Lujan closed the gap — slightly. The two were tied 2-2 after two periods thanks to a takedown for Hall and two escapes for Lujan. In the third period, Hall started down and picked up a reversal to give him some breathing room on the scoreboard. He was able to collect a riding-time point and won 5-3 to reach the semifinals.

Hall gets to face Michigan’s Myles Amine (No. 4 seed) for the fifth time in their careers.

184 Pounds: Shakur Rasheed (No. 2 seed)

Tournament record: 2-2

Current round: Eliminated

Recap: Rasheed came out looking to make sure his tournament wasn’t ended early. Although he won his first bout in in the consolation bracket, a 9-1 major decision over No. 17 Andrew McNally of Kent State, he couldn’t get past the third round of consys.

Rasheed’s scrambling that almost cost him a win on Thursday afternoon, ended up costing him his season on Friday afternoon. The senior was tied with Oklahoma State’s Dakota Geer (No. 26 seed) 2-2 late in the third period. The pair were scrambling around, and Geer caught Rasheed in the danger position. Geer was awarded a takedown for the winning points, but coach Cael Sanderson challenged the call. The review came back confirmed and Rasheed fell 4-2 to end his season at 20-2.

197 Pounds: Bo Nickal (No. 1 seed)

Tournament record: 3-0

Current round: Semifinals

Recap: Nickal continued to score bonus points for the Nittany Lions. He took on Stanford’s Nathan Traxler (No. 8 seed), whom Nickal pinned in the Southern Scuffle at the beginning of the new year.

Nickal didn’t pin Traxler this time, but he did manage to win by 10 points. Nickal opened with a six-point first period thanks to two takedowns and two near-fall points. After the second period was over, the redshirt senior led 9-2. Nickal tacked on two more takedowns and a riding-time point for a 14-4 major decision.

Nickal takes on Princeton’s Patrick Brucki (No. 4 seed), who only topped the No. 21 seed by a score of 4-3.

285 Pounds: Anthony Cassar (No. 2 seed)

Tournament record: 3-0

Current round: Semifinals

Recap: Cassar made sure he wasn’t going to be the Nittany Lions’ lone wrestler in the quarters to not make the semifinals. Still, his match was quite tight against Wisconsin’s Trent Hillger (No. 7 seed).

Yes, Hillger didn’t score any points, but Cassar wasn’t lighting the scoreboard up either. Cassar earned a late takedown in the first period on his infamous blast double. He had an escape in the second period as the pair danced around in the rest of the period. In the third period, Cassar put on a riding clinic for the entire period to win 4-0. He’ll take on Minnesota’s Gable Steveson in a rematch of the Big Ten finals in the semifinals.

NCAA Championships

Friday at Pittsburgh

Team key: Air Force (AF), American (A), Appalachian State (AS), Arizona State (ASU), Army (AWP), Binghamton (B), Bloomsburg (BB), Brown (BW), Bucknell (BK), Buffalo (BF), Cal Poly (CP), Campbell (CB), Central Michigan (CM), Chattanooga (Chat.), Clarion (C), Columbia (CU), Cornell (Co.), Cal State Bakersfield (CSB), Drexel (DX), Duke (D), Edinboro (E), Franklin & Marshall (FM), Fresno State (FS), Gardner-Webb (GW), George Mason (GM), Illinois (Ill.), Indiana (Ind.), Iowa (I), Iowa State (ISU), Kent State (KS), Lehigh (L), Lock Haven (LH), Maryland (M), Michigan (Mich.), Michigan State (MSU), Minnesota (Minn.), Missouri (Miss.), Navy (N), North Carolina State (NCST), Nebraska (Neb.), North Carolina (NC), North Dakota State (NDSU), Northern Colorado (NCO), Northern Illinois (NI), Northern Iowa (UNI), Northwestern (NW), Ohio (Oh.), Ohio State (OSU), Oklahoma (O), Oklahoma State (OST), Old Dominion (OD), Oregon State (ORST), Penn State (PSU), Penn (P), Pittsburgh (Pitt.), Princeton (PT), Purdue (PD), Rider (R), Rutgers (RT), SIU Edwardsville (SIU), Stanford (S), The Citadel (TC), Utah Valley (UV), Virginia (V), Virginia Tech (VT), Virginia Military Institute (VMI), Wisconsin (W), Wyoming (WY)

Team scores: 1. Penn State 80, 2. Ohio State 66.5, 3. Oklahoma State 56, 4. Iowa 43.5, 5. Michigan 40, 6. Missouri 36.5, 7. Minnesota 32, 8. Rutgers 29.5, 9. North Carolina State 29, 10. Cornell 26.5

Quarterfinals

141: Nick Lee, PSU, dec. Max Murin, I, 4-1; 157: Jason Nolf, PSU, tech. fall Christian Pagdilao, ASU, 23-6 (7:00); 165: Vincenzo Joseph, PSU, dec. Isaiah White, Neb., 3-1 (SV); 174: Mark Hall, PSU, dec. Taylor Lujan, UNI, 5-3; 197: Bo Nickal, PSU, major dec. Nathan Traxler, S, 14-4; 285: Anthony Cassar, PSU, dec. Trent Hillger, W, 4-0

Consolation Third Round

133: Roman Bravo-Young, PSU, dec. Ben Thornton, P, 3-1; 149: Tommy Thorn, Minn., dec. Brady Berge, PSU, 4-2 (SV); 184: Dakota Geer, OST, dec. Shakur Rasheed, PSU, 4-2

Consolation Second Round

133: Bravo-Young, PSU, dec. Charles Tucker, Co., 6-3; 149: Berge, PSU, dec. Tejon Anthony, GM, 6-2; 184: Rasheed, PSU, major dec. Andrew McNally, KS, 9-1

This story was originally published March 22, 2019 at 3:18 PM.