No. 1 Penn State wrestling is upset by Arizona State, breaks its 60 straight dual win streak
Arizona State’s 19-18 upset of the top-ranked Nittany Lion wrestling team on Friday might have shocked the wrestling world, but for the Sun Devils, this win has been a long time coming.
Sitting between brothers Zahid and Anthony Valencia on Monday in a packed media room, coach Zeke Jones said this date has been marked on his program since he arrived at ASU in 2014 and brought in the nation’s top-ranked recruiting class in 2015 — led by the Valencias.
“We marked this on our calendar as an important date in the history for wrestling, wrestling in the West, wrestling for Arizona State, wrestling for our program and for our university,” he said.
Part of the reason why several of his wrestlers — including the Valencias — didn’t take Olympic redshirts this year was to set up this moment, he said.
The Sun Devils have been waiting five years for this opportunity, and didn’t take it for granted, spoiling the Nittany Lions’ first-ever trip out to Tempe. Penn State has been the most dominant team in college wrestling for the past decade, winning eight national championships in the past nine years, and not losing a dual meet since Feb. 15, 2015, against Oklahoma State.
Before Friday, the Nittany Lions had been riding a 60 straight dual meet win streak, and were challenging Iowa’s modern-era record of 69. Down two starters in Brady Berge at 157 and Shakur Rasheed at 184 pounds, the Nittany Lions ultimately lost the bonus-point battle 4-3, as the two teams split the bouts with five apiece.
“Penn State is what UCLA basketball was. Penn State is what the Patriots are now. They’ve won nine out of the last 10 national championships (Editor’s note: Penn State is pursuing its ninth national championship in 10 years). They haven’t lost a dual meet in five years,” Jones said Monday, as he encouraged fans to come out to the dual. “If you want to see the best college team in the country come to the arena, this would be the one to come to. Hopefully we’re going to make them the second best. That’s the goal.”
It’s clear that Jones’s words worked, as 8,522 fans came out to Desert Financial Center in Friday, breaking an attendance record.
The crowd was into the dual from the very beginning, helping the Sun Devils gain early momentum as No. 19 Brandon Courtney rolled to a 19-7 major decision over Penn State redshirt freshman Brody Teske at 125 pounds in a match that set the tone for the rest of the evening. The Sun Devils kept that momentum rolling into the 133-pound bout, when their No. 16 Josh Kramer made Tuscon native and No. 3-ranked Roman Bravo-Young fight to hold on for the 8-7 win in his Arizona homecoming.
“It was a great atmosphere here, great crowd, and they came to wrestle, they did a good job,” assistant coach Cody Sanderson told the PA Sports Network after the dual.
No. 3 Nick Lee got the Nittany Lions back in the match with an 18-3 technical fall of Cory Crooks to give Penn State its first lead of the night, 8-4. Arizona State took the next two bouts with a 5-4 decision by Josh Maruca over Jarod Verkleeren at 149, and a 9-4 decision by highly touted freshman Jacori Teemer over Bo Pipher at 157 to lead 10-8 at the halfway mark.
Verkleeren is fighting it out with teammate Luke Gardner for the starting spot at 149 pounds, while Pipher is filling in at 157 pounds for sophomore Brady Berge, who suffered an injury at the U23 world Championships in October. Both of their matches were seen as key to either team’s chances of winning the dual.
For Verkleeren, a missed takedown call proved crucial to the final outcome. Penn State’s redshirt sophomore was leading 2-1, when Maruca took him down and Verkleeren quickly escaped. However, the officials waived off the takedown, and Arizona State challenged. While Maruca was given back his takedown, Verkleeren was unable to get another escape with seconds left in the first period. Maruca had the choice to start the second and took down, going up two more points on Verkleeren with an escape.
“That takedown call, that’s a hard call, that’s one of the hard parts about that rule with the challenge,” Sanderson said. “Had the referee called two right away — I thought it was a 2-point takedown — and Jarod escapes right away, he gets that extra point rather than finishing on bottom. It’s one of the hard parts about that challenge rule. Sometimes it changes the course of the rest of the period.”’
Penn State’s top-ranked seniors Vincenzo Joseph and Mark Hall got the Nittany Lions back on track after the break. Joseph won the takedown battle 3-0 against his former high school training partner No. 5 Josh Shields, en route to a 7-4 decision at 165 pounds. Hall tired Anthony Valencia out quickly at 174 pounds, after having given up the initial takedown. Hall shot back with four takedowns and 1:44 in riding time to beat the No. 8-ranked wrestler by a 11-3 major decision.
The Nittany Lions forfeited the 184-pound bout to reigning 174-pound national champ Zahid Valencia, after Creighton Edsell didn’t weigh in for undisclosed reasons. While Rasheed did weigh in, according to the PA Sports Network, he didn’t wrestle, as he’s recovering from offseason ACL surgery. Penn State’s Kyle Conel then dropped a 10-4 decision to Kordell Norfleet, as ASU took the 19-15 lead heading into the final bout.
Because of the forfeit, Penn State needed reigning national champ Anthony Cassar to get a pin or technical fall over No. 5 Tanner Hall to secure the victory. If he got a major decision to tie it, the Sun Devils would win on criteria.
Cassar was just a fraction of an inch away from winning it for the Nittany Lions, as he took Hall to his back off a double leg, which ultimately proved to be a six-point move as Hall rolled through. The senior’s 9-5 effort wasn’t quite enough as the Nittany Lions fell 19-18.
The Arizona State fans stormed the mat as maroon and gold smoke shot into the air. They knew what this win meant. Their team just knocked off the “Patriots.”
For the Nittany Lions, whose wrestlers have never lost a dual in a blue and white singlet as starters, Sanderson hopes to turn this defeat into a learning experience that will ultimately benefit the team.
“Loses are painful. Everyone of us is sick to our stomach right now,” Sanderson said. “But it’s part of the sport. Those guys came out and wrestled great. They wrestled better than we did tonight, and that’s really what it boiled down to — they wrestled better than we did, and they got the win. So we need to go back, get to work and figure some things out.
“One thing about a loss is that it can be very clarifying. sometime you wonder if you should be doing one thing or another, and something about a loss snaps you right back into focus and you can start making improvements that are necessary. So we just have to find a way to make this a positive thing for our team.”
Penn State will get a week off for the Thanksgiving holiday, but will be back in action against No. 7 Lehigh on Dec. 6.
No. 10 Arizona State 19, No. 1 Penn State 18
Sunday at Tempe, Arizona
125: No. 19 Brandon Courtney ASU, maj. dec. Brody Teske, PSU, 19-7
133: No. 3 Roman Bravo-Young, PSU, dec. No. 16 Josh Kramer, ASU, 7-6
141: No. 3 Nick Lee, PSU, tech fall Cory Crooks, ASU, 18-3 (4:28)
149: Josh Maruca, ASU, dec. Jarod Verkleeren, PSU, 5-4
157: Jacori Teemer, ASU, dec. Bo Pipher, PSU, 9-4
165: No. 1 Vincenzo Joseph, PSU, dec. No. 5 Josh Shields, ASU, 7-4
174: No. 1 Mark Hall PSU, maj. dec. No. 8 Anthony Valencia, ASU, 11-3
184: No. 1 Zahid Valencia ASU won by forfeit
197: Kordell Norfleet, ASU, dec. No. 7 Kyle Conel ,PSU, 10-4
285: No. 1 Anthony Cassar, PSU, dec. No. 5 Tanner Hall, ASU, 9-5
Attendance: 8,542
Takedowns: ASU 16, Penn State 19
Records: Penn State (1-1); Arizona State (5-0)
This story was originally published November 22, 2019 at 11:08 PM.
