How the members of Penn State wrestling’s top-ranked 2018 recruiting class are doing now
Penn State wrestling brought in what was widely regarded as the top recruiting class in 2018. Both FloWrestling and InterMat had the Nittany Lions No. 1 with a class that included seven top 100 recruits in Aaron Brooks, Michael Beard, Roman Bravo-Young, Gavin Teasdale, Joe Lee, Seth Nevills and Brody Teske.
“It’s an absurdly strong class for the squad that has won seven national titles over the last eight seasons,” InterMat wrote at the time.
The last time the Nittany Lions had a class ranked that high was 2014, when they brought in Bo Nickal, Jason Nolf, Nick Nevills, Shakur Rasheed and then-unranked Anthony Cassar. That entire class — plus then-sophomore Zain Retherford — all redshirted that season, which helped set up Penn State’s current streak of four straight national titles.
Could this class set up another dominant run?
Out of the seven, four of Penn State’s top-100 recruits took an extra “gray shirt” year between graduating high school and enrolling at Penn State, so their full potential has still yet to be tapped. However, many, if not all, of the members of this class will be competing in some capacity over the break, either at open tournaments, or at Senior Nationals in Fort Worth, Texas, where at least Brooks has said he has plans to compete.
Here’s a look at how each of those former recruits have progressed so far:
Roman Bravo-Young (Penn State true sophomore, 133 pounds)
Of all the members of Penn State’s top-ranked 2018 recruiting class, Roman Bravo-Young is the one with the most Penn State success so far. The Tuscon, Arizona, native arrived on campus during summer session in 2018, along with fellow four-time state champs Brody Teske, of Iowa, and Gavin Teasdale, of Pennsylvania, and started right off the bat for the Nittany Lions at 133 pounds.
Bravo-Young’s speed and athleticism — traits that led to memorable moves like the “flying squirrel” against Lehigh last December that made ESPN’s Top 10 Plays — quickly made the true freshman a fan favorite.
The Sunnyside High School grad ended the season with a 25-7 overall record, after missing time with an injury. He placed fourth at Big Tens, and knocked off Pitt’s No. 4 seed Micky Phillippi to place eighth as an All-American at NCAAs in what was widely regarded as one of the toughest weight classes in the country.
Bravo-Young has been off to a successful start so far this season, ranked No. 4 at 133 pounds by InterMat with a 7-0 record, including four major decisions, and a Black Knight Invitational title.
Between last season and this season, he said he believes he’s gotten stronger both mentally and physically and has a better understanding of positioning and when to use his speed. He attributes most of his improvements to changes he’s made off the mat.
“This year I just do a lot of things different, eating better, getting sleep, going to Bible study, looking at things from a different perspective, not focusing on winning and losing,” he said earlier this season. “I’m not wrestling for other people, I’m not wrestling for the justification of others. I’m just trusting myself and being the best person I can be.”
Brody Teske (Penn State redshirt freshman, 125 pounds)
Unlike his freshman-year roommate Bravo-Young, Teske did not start right away for the Nittany Lions, and instead redshirted the 2018-19 season. As he dealt with some minor injury issues, according to coach Cael Sanderson, the four-time Iowa state champ who finished his high school career with a 177-1 record saw limited action during his redshirt year.
He went 6-2 competing in open tournaments, including a 2-1 run at the Southern Scuffle, before bowing out due to injury. He also secured a first-place finish at 133 pounds wrestling unattached at Iowa State’s Last Chance Open in February.
This season — with his new mullet in tow — Teske earned the starting spot at 125 pounds to begin the season, amassing a 5-2 record, including a pin and a major decision, and a third-place finish at the Black Knight Invitational. Minor injury issues, however, have kept him out the past two duals.
In his Rec Hall debut, Teske held on for a 2-1 decision over Navy’s Logan Treaster. Unhappy with his low-scoring performance, the Fort Dodge High School grad said scoring more points was going to be a main focus for him moving forward.
“It’s definitely a goal of mine, that I want to score more points,” he said. “I mean a 2-1 match like that is something I don’t want to do, but it’s a W early in the season, still learning.”
In his next bout — in the first round of the Black Knight Invitational — he got a pin.
Aaron Brooks (Penn State true freshman, 184 pounds)
A four-time Maryland state champ, Brooks was one of four members of this 2018 recruiting class to take an extra year between graduating from high school and enrolling at Penn State.
The Hagerstown, Maryland, native spent his “gray shirt” year working out at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, under the direction of coach Kevin Jackson.
During that time, Brooks competed in both freestyle and folkstyle tournaments, winning the U.S. open at 79 kilograms in April to make the Junior World Team.
Before the season began, Brooks said the plan was for him to redshirt while he simultaneously worked on gaining collegiate folkstyle experience in open tournaments and qualifying for April’s Olympic trials in freestyle. However, the coaches pulled him out of redshirt against Lehigh last week, and he’s since gone 2-0 with a technical fall to boot.
Just prior to his redshirt being pulled, Brooks went 3-0 with a pin to win Lock Haven’s Mat-Town Open.
From his year spent at the OTC, Brooks said the biggest thing he learned is to always be his biggest fan and keep positive.
“Its been fun believing in myself the whole time and proving to myself what I’m capable of,” he said before the season began. “Just staying true to myself has been the most fun part and seeing what I’m capable of doing physically and mentally.”
Brooks impressed many of his older teammates right away, earning high praises from past national champs Mark Hall and Anthony Cassar at the team’s preseason media availability. After the Lehigh match where Brooks’ redshirt was pulled, Hall even said he sees a bit of himself in the true freshman.
“I know when I was going with the older guys, when I was in my freshman year, I didn’t have a lot of those problems that a lot of freshmen have like getting away,” he said. “You guys seen my top wrestling today, riding the No. 2 wrestler in the country. When I ride Aaron, he gets away almost immediately.”
Seth Nevills (Penn State redshirt, heavyweight)
Like Brooks, Nevills, along with Beard and Lee, also took a “gray shirt” year before enrolling at Penn State. But unlike Brooks, the other three spent most of their time in the past year in Penn State’s wrestling room, working out with the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club.
During that year, Nevills, a four-time California state champ for Clovis High School, said the three were kept on a pretty routine schedule, typically practicing twice a day, just like the team.
“I think we just got to see how the guys acted last year, and we’ll get to see it again this year,” Nevills said at the team’s preseason media availability. “I think that’s going to shape us to do what we need to do.”
With Cassar back for another season after having been granted a sixth year of eligibility by the NCAA, Sanderson said the plan this year for Nevills is to redshirt. Despite Cassar wrestling a modified folkstyle schedule this year as he trains to try to earn a spot on the Olympic team, Sanderson said he’s committed to preserving redshirts, and not burning any “for just a few matches.”
In the meantime, Nevills has been seeing success in open tournaments. He won the Mat-Town Open on Dec. 1 with a 3-0 record and two pins. He also wrestled in some opens last season, which Nevills said served as a good barometer to see how far he and the other “gray shirts” progressed in their training, and what they need to work on.
“The coaches, they just want us to do what we’ve been doing in here, but with other guys out there. And it really shows a lot about what we’ve been doing in here,” he said. “Our opponents are really tough because this is one of the best rooms in America, so it’s amazing, and when we go out there we find out a lot about ourselves and how far we’ve come in training.”
Michael Beard (Penn State redshirt, 197 pounds)
Pennsylvania product Beard, like Nevills, is also spending his true freshman year as a redshirt, wrestling in open tournaments.
During his “gray shirt year,” Beard said he wrestled in four open tournaments, and worked on improving “little stuff” like top, bottom and neutral.
So far this season, Beard has wrestled in both the Clarion and Mat-Town opens. He finished as runner up at the Clarion Open, going 2-1 and losing a close decision in the finals.
“I think I wrestled OK,” he said after at preseason media availability, shortly after the tournament. “I think there’s a lot of things I need to adjust, and on a bad day, I still need to figure out how to win those close matches.”
He found redemption in Lock Haven, rolling to the 197-pound title with two technical falls and a major decision.
For Beard, one of the biggest benefits of the “gray shirt” year was having the opportunity to adjust to the daily practice routine. Despite now going on his second straight year without regular competition, Beard said he — along with his fellow former “gray shirts” — hasn’t lost focus on his ultimate goals.
“I think coming here to Penn state, we all have high expectations for ourselves,” he said. “On a daily basis, we’re all focused on that.”
Joe Lee (Penn State redshirt, 165 pounds)
For Lee, who like Nevills is joining an older brother in the room, the plan has also been to redshirt, with two-time national champion senior Vincenzo Joseph ahead of him in the lineup.
But Lee has been impressing at least one of his teammates so far this season in practice — his brother, two-time All-American junior Nick Lee.
“I’m going to have to say my brother,” Nick Lee said when asked prior to the season which freshman had been impressing him most. “That’s probably biased, but I remember growing up, we’d always go back and forth, and he’s really been putting in good work, getting a lot better. And I guess maybe me being his big brother, I watch him a little more closely, but he’s been doing really well. “
Like his brother, Joe Lee decided to forego his senior year of high school eligibility, after two Indiana state titles, to train with the NLWC in State College while finishing his credits online.
So far this season, he’s gone 4-0 with two majors to win the Clarion Open.
For Lee, having that extra “gray shirt” year to train with “some of the best wrestlers in the world” has given him, Nevills and Beard an edge when it comes to experience.
“It was like an extra step forward,” he said. “It was a good year and gave us a transition period form high school to college. I think it benefited us a lot.”
Gavin Teasdale (Iowa redshirt freshman, 133 pounds)
Of the seven top-100 recruits Penn State snagged in its top-ranked 2018 recruiting class, Pennsylvania product Teasdale is the lone member who’s no longer with the Nittany Lions.
The four-time state champ out of Jefferson Morgan High School came to Penn State the summer after graduating with Bravo-Young and Teske, but off-the-mat issues kept him from competing. Teasdale detailed those off-mat issues in an interview with PA Power Wrestling in July.
Last November, he announced on Twitter that he’d be leaving school for health issues, but planned to return in January. Although he did return, Teasdale never wrestled, and Sanderson announced Teasdale’s intent to transfer on Jan. 22.
“You have so much on your plate and you’re going into college, it’s so much more than just being a student,” Teasdale told PA Power Wrestling. “That’s the thing I had to realize; I wasn’t just a regular student up there on that campus. I had to realize that I have to be going to classes, I have to be managing my weight ... .“
He ended up landing in Iowa City, Iowa, where he had initially verbally committed with friend and Young Guns training partner Spencer Lee in 2016, before flipping his commitment to Penn State.
With two-time national champion junior Lee at 125, Teasdale is listed on Iowa’s roster at 133 pounds. Fellow Pennsylvanian Austin DeSanto has been successfully holding down 133 pounds for the Hawks this season, while Teasdale has been wrestling open tournaments.
He placed third in the Luther College Open and second at the Jim Koch Open so far this season.
Honorable mention: While they weren’t as highly ranked, Penn State also brought current redshirt freshmen in Paul Feite (149), Creighton Edsell (165/174), Konner Kraeszig (165) and Brandon Meredith (125/133) in that class. Each of those wrestlers have contributed, in some capacity, to the Nittany Lions this season. Both Edsell and Meredith have gotten opportunities in the starting lineup, with Edsell earning a 5-2 decision in his dual meet debut vs. Navy, and Meredith going 1-1 in dual meets so far, including an 8-5 win over then-No. 10 Michael Colaiocco, of Penn. Kraeszig placed third at the Black Knight Invitational, while Edsell and Meredith took fifth.
2019 class: After bringing in such a loaded 2018 class, Penn State’s 2019 recruiting class went unranked by most rankings sites. However, the Nittany Lions did land a stud in Erie Cathedral Prep’s Carter Starocci. The redshirting true freshman has been busy on the open tournament circuit, knocking off InterMat’s No. 12 Ban Harvey, of Army, to win the GMU Patriot Open on Dec. 7. He also has a Clarion Open title and a 7-0 record under his belt so far.
This story was originally published December 15, 2019 at 2:14 PM.
