What Penn State wrestling coach Cael Sanderson hopes his wrestlers can gain from the Black Knight invite
Redshirt freshman Brody Teske has been looking forward to putting on a blue-and-white singlet and representing Nittany Lion wrestling for a long time. But last Sunday’s result — a 2-1 win on a penalty point — isn’t exactly how he’d imagined that going.
“A 2-1 match is not something I want to do,” he said on Tuesday, two days after his first career start, in Penn State’s 45-0 win over Navy. “But it’s a W. It’s still early in the season, still learning. Just getting to this ‘new level’ is a big thing.”
The Fort Dodge, Iowa, native, along with about 14 of his teammates, will have the opportunity to work on getting to that “new level” Sunday at Army West Point’s Black Knight Invitational. The one-day tournament, held on Army’s campus in West Point, New York, will feature the top-ranked Nittany Lions, Army, Michigan, Bloomsburg, Central Michigan, Hofstra, Indiana and Maryland.
The main thing Teske said he hopes to gain from Sunday’s tournament is confidence.
The tournament setting, which will provide the opportunity for each wrestler to get multiple matches, will be particularly valuable for the younger wrestlers and backups to quickly gain more collegiate experience outside the wrestling room.
“I like wrestling tournaments because you get a lot of matches in one day. It’s a lot of experience,” said junior Bo Pipher, who started at 157 last week in place of the injured Brady Berge. “You can learn a lot from a tournament, for me, more so than from a dual. There’s just a lot of different matches to analyze and improve on what you’re doing wrong.”
This season, it’s especially important for Penn State to develop more depth up and down its lineup. Not only are the Nittany Lions replacing two all-time greats in Jason Nolf and Bo Nickal, but they’re also heading into an Olympic year. Several Nittany Lions, including former national champs Vincenzo Joseph and Anthony Cassar, have expressed interest in trying to qualify for April’s Olympic trials, meaning they could miss some collegiate competition this season to wrestle internationally. Joseph wrestled Saturday in the Bill Farrell Memorial International Open, and isn’t expected to compete Sunday.
On top of that, injuries have kept two starters — Berge and Shakur Rasheed (184 pounds) — off the mat so far this season. But coach Cael Sanderson reaffirmed his decision on Tuesday to maintain redshirts on his highly touted true freshman class — Joe Lee, Aaron Brooks, Michael Beard, Carter Starocci and Seth Nevills — unless it becomes necessary to pull them.
All of that has opened up opportunities for other wrestlers in the room to get the chance to compete. Ever since sophomore 184/197-pounder Austin Hoopes found out he might be called upon to fill in for Cassar at heavyweight at times this season, Sanderson said he “pretty much cleaned out our protein shake refrigerator” trying to bulk up.
That willingness to want to compete and love for the sport are the main factors Sanderson said he looks for when determining his starting lineup. But, of course, how those wrestlers compete outside of the practice room is the other half of that equation. Sanderson said he hopes to get a better idea of which wrestlers best embody those traits on Sunday.
Hoopes, along with Creighton Edsell, who filled in for Rasheed last Sunday, Konner Kraeszig at 165 pounds, Pipher and Paul Feite at 157 pounds and Dominic Giannangeli at 141 pounds are some of those “backups” expected to compete at the tournament. The Nittany Lions are also planning to go three deep at 125, and two deep at 149 — the two weight classes Sanderson said are most contested in his lineup.
Teske, along with junior Devin Schnupp and redshirt freshman Brandon Meredith will be competing at 125, and sophomore Jarod Verkleeren and junior Luke Gardner at 149.
The main thing Sanderson said he’s looking from out of his wrestlers this weekend — particularly of those at the more contested weight classes — is potential. Potential, he said, is best measured by the attitude of the athlete.
“I think attitude is always going to be your best predictor of potential, and who’s going to be somebody you can count on more in the bigger matches as we get toward the end of the season,” he said. “And obviously scoring points. But that’s one of the jobs of coaching, trying to figure out who you think has the best chance to score points and win big dual meets and win big matches.
“We don’t always get it right, but we do our best.”
In recent history, the Nittany Lions had been scheduling an early season tournament, and then a midseason tournament — typically the Southern Scuffle at the turn of the new year. But due to the Olympic year and the dates on which some of the qualifying tournaments fall, Penn State has just one folkstyle tournament scheduled for this season. However, Sanderson said there is at least one open they’re thinking of sending guys to for added experience.
In addition to the backups and guys scrapping to secure starting spots, seasoned starters like senior Mark Hall, junior Nick Lee and sophomore Roman Bravo-Young are expected to wrestle Sunday, as well as senior transfer Kyle Conel, who’s still working to get back into full swing after missing nearly a year due to injury.
At the end of the day, Sanderson said the coaches will be looking for each wrestler to have made improvements and to have gone out and competed with enthusiasm — whether they’re backups or determined starters.
“You want your kids to find ways to score points and find ways to win matches, but ultimately we’re trying to get better,” he said. “That’s going to be the goal and (our) mindset won’t change. We have the same mindset every day, practice, competition, and that’s the mindset we’re going to take into the first day of nationals.
“If you want to be tough and ready to go in March, you have to bring that same mentality every day here.”
Penn State at Black Knight Invite
When: 10 a.m., Sunday
Where: Christl Arena, West Point, N.Y.
Online: Flowrestling.org (paid subscription)
Radio: WRSC 93.3 FM or WQWK 103.7 FM
| Nittany Lions set to compete |
| 125: Devin Schnupp (0-0), Brody Teske (1-0), Brandon Meredith (4-1) |
| 133: No. 3 Roman Bravo-Young (1-0) |
| 141: No. 3 Nick Lee (1-0), Dominic Giannangeli (0-0) |
| 149: Luke Gardner (1-0), Jarod Verkleeren (0-0) |
| 157: Bo Pipher (1-0), Paul Feite (1-2) |
| 165: Konner Kraeszig (0-0) |
| 174: No. 1 Mark Hall (1-0) |
| 184: Creighton Edsell (1-0) |
| 197: No. 3 Kyle Conel (1-0) |
| 285: No. 1 Anthony Cassar (1-0), Austin Hoopes (0-0) |
This story was originally published November 16, 2019 at 6:17 PM.
