Here are the Penn State wrestlers who were able to secure Olympic Team Trials spots
With Penn State wrestling’s season on hold for the winter break, a trio of current wrestlers and a former and future Nittany Lion aimed to lock up a spot in the Olympic Team Trials set for April 4-5 in State College.
Nick Lee (65kg), Aaron Brooks (86 kg), Anthony Cassar (125 kg), Nick Nevills (125 kg) and Greg Kerkvliet (125 kg), who announced earlier this month his intentions of joining the program, were the five wrestlers eyeing for those spots. All they had to do was finish in the top five of their respective weight classes at the Senior Nationals on Sunday in Fort Worth, Texas.
Lee, Nevills and Kerkvliet were able to lock up spots, with Lee and Kerkvliet the highest finishers with third-place endings. Nevills finished fourth.
Brooks just missed out by finishing sixth. On the other hand, Cassar wasn’t able to finish the tournament as he suffered an injury.
There were two other former Penn State wrestlers in Frank Molinaro (65 kg) and Dan Vallimont (74 kg) aiming for a bid to the Olympic Team Trials. Molinaro was able to secure his berth to State College.
Lee, Brooks, Cassar and Kerkvliet all made it to the semifinals before falling into the consolation brackets.
Lee entered the tournament as the No. 11 seed and made it to the semifinals with a 10-0 technical fall over Ethan Lizak, a 10-6 decision over Jaydin Eierman and a 10-0 technical fall over Joey Lazor, who sent Molinaro to the consolations with a quarterfinals’ loss.
Lee fell 10-0 to Jordan Oliver in the semifinals. He made the third-place match with a 10-0 technical fall over Molinaro and finished third as Yianni Diakomihalis, who was the No. 1 seed, injury defaulted out.
Kerkvliet opened with a 10-0 technical fall over Mauro Correnti and then pinned Nevills in 36 seconds in the quarterfinals. Kerkvliet fell to No. 1 seed Anthony Nelson 3-2 in the semifinals. He used a 10-0 technical fall over Garrett Ryan to reach the third-place match, where he topped Nevills for a second time, but this time it was 3-0.
Nevills used identical 14-3 technical falls to reach the quarterfinals. He topped younger brother AJ in the round of 16. He began his consolation bracket run with a 3-2 win over Youseif Hemida. Nevills topped Arizona State’s Tanner Hall on criteria in the consolation quarterfinals before getting a bye to the third-place match since Cassar injury defaulted out of the tournament.
Brooks opened his tournament with a 10-0 technical fall and held off NCAA 184-pound runner up Max Dean 10-7 to make the quarterfinals. The true freshman topped former Iowa wrestler Sammy Brooks 15-9 to make the semifinals, where Brooks lost 6-0 to Arizona State’s Zahid Valencia.
Brooks then lost his final two matches to finish sixth and one spot shy of a qualifying spot.
Cassar rolled to the semifinals by outscoring his opponents 20-2. He won his first match in 47 seconds. In the semifinals, Cassar was trailing Dom Bradley 5-2 with 45 seconds remaining in the match. Cassar went for a takedown and appeared to pop his left shoulder out of place, ending his tournament.
This story was originally published December 22, 2019 at 2:07 PM.
