No freshman jitters for Seth Nevills as he seals the dual for Penn State wrestling vs. Illinois
Headed into the final bout of the evening, Penn State wrestling found itself in a position it isn’t used to being in — holding on to a tight 3-point lead against an unranked Illinois team.
The Nittany Lions’ fate fell square on the broad shoulders of true freshman heavyweight Seth Nevills.
Even in his first start, the four-time California state champ was able to quickly shake off the nerves, earning his first official Penn State win, 6-3 over Luke Luffman, and in turn, sealing the dual 22-16 for his team.
“When you’re a heavyweight, you kind of always think that it can happen,” he said. “And as the dual was going on, I could sense that it might come down to that, and you know that kind of just excited me, that my first dual could mean a lot. And I know it would mean a lot no matter what, but it’s just icing on the cake.”
Nevills wasted no time out on the mat, getting in on a low single to take down Luffman and get out to an early two-point lead. He kept working, building up more than a minute of riding time in the first and escaping to widen the margin to three. Luffman, however, countered Nevills’ shot late in the second to make it 3-2 heading into the final period.
But even then, Nevills said he was able to keep an even head.
“When you get out there, you’re just in the moment,” he said. “You’re not really thinking about anything, you’re just wrestling.”
Nevills then struck back by converting a counter of his own, and racked up three minutes and four seconds of riding time for the 6-3 win.
Nevills was officially pulled out of redshirt Friday night at Rec Hall, taking over at the weight class vacated by reigning national champ Anthony Cassar. Head coach Cael Sanderson announced Tuesday that both Cassar and former All-American 197-pounder Kyle Conel would be out for the rest of the season with injuries.
On top of that, Penn State also had three other regular starters out of the lineup in Roman Bravo-Young, Brady Berge and Vincenzo Joseph.
Despite all the uncertainty, Nevills’ teammates were confident in his ability to get the job done.
“Seth’s a real calm guy, he didn’t let the situation get to him at all,” two-time All-American junior Nick Lee said. “We love Seth, he does everything right. He met expectations and exceeded expectations. He does everything right, every practice he works hard, so I was just glad to see it in action.”
Part of Nevills’ calmness under pressure may have come from watching his older brother, former two-time All-American Nick Nevills, do the same thing for Penn State. Nick helped put away several duals for the Nittany Lions at heavyweight, a couple of the most memorable being a third-period ride-out against Lehigh to keep the dual win streak alive in 2017, and by keeping Ohio State’s Kyle Snyder to a regular decision in 2018 to give Penn State a 19-18 win.
Nick is still in Penn State’s wrestling room, training with the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club (NLWC) to compete for a spot on the Olympic team. He still works out with his youngest brother, and gave him some advice before his first dual.
“He just told me to go enjoy it,” Seth said. “He knows he enjoyed it, and he just wanted me to really go out there and not take anything for granted and get a full experience and enjoy every part of it.”
Nevills’ debut has been a long time coming. He arrived on campus shortly after graduating from Clovis High School in 2018, as the third-ranked heavyweight in his graduating class, per FloWrestling. But instead of enrolling in school, he, along with classmates Michael Beard and Joe Lee, spent a “gray shirt” year working out and training with the NLWC and competing in open tournaments unattached.
During this “gray shirt” year, Nevills had said the three were kept on a pretty routine schedule, practicing twice a day, just like the team. The initial plan, Sanderson said, was for Nevills to start this season, until Cassar had chose to take the sixth year of eligibility awarded to him by the NCAA.
But the whole time, Nevills said the coaching staff kept him and all the other redshirts and backups ready and prepared for whenever a chance to crack the starting lineup might present itself.
“They always keep us ready,” he said. “They’re always putting us through the same stuff as the starters. So, it always keeps us in check. They always ask of us the same stuff, they don’t really make anybody not included. So, they always make us feel like we’re always doing the stuff for the starters. So, we’re always ready.”
Nevills will have another chance to gain experience and add to his win column Sunday, when the Nittany Lions host Northwestern. Whether or not Nevills will be needed to again close out the win for his team is unknown, but Sanderson is confident in what the future has in store for his young heavyweight.
“Seth went out and took care of business and hit some nice shots, did a nice job on top, got out from bottom, just kind of showed some of his potential,” Sanderson said. “So I think we’re good to go.”
Note: The Centre Daily Times uses NWCA coaches poll rankings.
This story was originally published January 11, 2020 at 2:34 PM.
