No. 3 Penn State wrestling rebounds nicely in victory over No. 13 Northwestern
Penn State wrestling Coach Cael Sanderson was asked what his team did to show more energy and improvement in its 30-9 win over No. 13 Northwestern at Rec Hall Sunday, after a lackluster performance Friday night against Illinois.
He joked and said he wasn’t sure because he was with a contingent of wrestlers at the Shorty Hitchcock Memorial Tournament in Millersville on Saturday.
“Whatever coach Cody (Sanderson), Casey (Cunningham) and (Jake) Varner did, it worked pretty well,” Sanderson said with a laugh. “I think I’ll be gone all the time. You keep plugging away. You stay positive and optimistic. Negativity never really solves any problems so it’s just part of the process.”
Yes, the Nittany Lions also won Friday, 22-16, but something seemed different in Sunday’s win.
It wasn’t just Roman Bravo-Young and Vincenzo Joseph’s returns to the lineup. It was that even in bouts that were lost by Penn State’s wrestlers, they looked confident and comfortable, fighting all the way to the end.
The dual began with Bravo-Young hitting the mat first at 133 pounds in his return. A spot not usual for Penn State duals, but the sophomore knew what he had to do.
“Today, I was first, I just wanted to get the team rolling right away,” Bravo-Young said.
The Tucson, Arizona., native got things started with a flair. RBY rattled off nine takedowns in multiple different ways. He began with an eight-point first period and ended with a nine-point third period in a 23-8 technical fall over Dylan Utterback, who filled in for a missing Sebastian Rivera.
Even though RBY was dominant, he knows there is still work to do.
“There’s always room for improvement,” he said. “I’m just getting ready for March and being able to move my feet for seven minutes. I’m just working on everything I could.”
Nick Lee followed RBY with a technical fall of his own. The junior had seven takedowns in his bout. Five of those came in the first period, where he scored 14 points. In the end, thanks to a second stall call on Alec McKenna, Lee secured a 20-5 technical fall and Penn State was off and running with a 10-0 lead.
The Nittany Lions tacked on three more points to their lead when Jarod Verkleeren picked up an 8-2 decision over Eric Yang.
After Verkleeren, there was a string of No. 1 wrestlers hitting the mat.
The Wildcats’ Ryan Deakin, who is No. 1 at 157, took on Bo Pipher. Pipher had an upset on his mind from the first whistle. He was in on multiple shots and trailed just 3-0 after two periods of wrestling. In the end, Deakin was able to pull off a 6-0 win and the crowd gave a standing ovation to Pipher.
“We know Bo is pretty darn good. He fought hard and got into some tough scrambles,” Sanderson said. “Deakin is, I think No. 1 in the country right now, he’s obviously very good. We believe in Bo and think he can win big matches.”
Joseph didn’t waste any time in his return to the mat. He took down Shane Oyster, slapped on a cradle and pinned the Northwestern wrestler in 56 seconds.
Mark Hall collected a 17-2 technical fall at 174 over Tyler Morland. It was a bout that Hall led 15-2 to start the third period. Penn State led 24-3 to start the second half of the dual.
Creighton Edsell made a return to the lineup for the first time since Aaron Brooks came out of his redshirt at Lehigh. Edsell was slated to wrestle in the Shorty Hitchcock Memorial Tournament on Saturday, but things changed.
“(We) had a call that Aaron probably wasn’t going to wrestle,” Sanderson said. “He (Edsell) wrestled one match and we pulled him out. He just got ready for today.”
It’s not known why Brooks missed Sunday’s dual, but Edsell made the most of his opportunity. He scored three unanswered points, tacked on a riding-time point in a 4-1 win over Jack Jessen. It’s a spot that Edsell wasn’t able to be in a year ago.
“If you look back, last year, I was in a sling at this time,” he said. “Being able to come back a year later, being healthier, being able to compete and have fun, it’s just blessing. It feels pretty good.”
Shakur Rasheed hit the mat again at 197 pounds, but the result wasn’t the same as Friday. Rasheed was tied 3-3 to start the third period against Lucas Davison, who beat No. 2 Christian Brunner of Purdue on Friday. Rasheed started on the bottom to begin and quickly escaped to the 4-3 lead.
However, Davison took him down and the pair were tied at 5-5 with 1:25 left. Davison pulled off another upset by taking down Rasheed one more time with 25 seconds left in a 7-5 win.
Seth Nevills controlled his way to his second straight dual win, 6-1 over Jack Heyob. The Nittany Lions led 30-6 going to the final bout of Brandon Meredith taking on No. 7 Michael DeAugustino at 125 pounds.
DeAugustino came out and raced to a 5-1 lead after two periods, but his tank seemed rather empty for the third period. Meredith took DeAugustino down and cut him loose to trail 6-3. Meredith attempted to pick up his second top-10 win, but was unable to and fell 7-3 to DeAugustino.
“I think the energy level was a little bit better,” Sanderson said, “a little more fire out there, which is important as we get moving forward. We have things we can work on, that’s never going to change, but the important thing is still to wrestle with some passion.”
No. 3 Penn State 30, No. 13 Northwestern 9
Sunday at Rec Hall
133: No. 3 Roman Bravo-Young, PSU, tech. fall Dylan Utterback, 23-8 (6:26)
141: No. 2 Nick Lee, PSU, tech. fall Alec McKenna, 20-5 (4:51)
149: Jarod Verkleeren, PSU, dec. Eric Yang, 8-2
157: No. 1 Ryan Deakin, N, dec. Bo Pipher, 6-0
165: No. 1 Vincenzo Joseph, PSU, pinned Shayne Oster, :56
174: No. 1 Mark Hall, PSU, tech. fall Tyler Morland, 17-2 (5:21)
184: Creighton Edsell, PSU, dec. Jack Jessen, 4-1
197: Lucas Davison, N, dec. Shakur Rasheed, 7-5
285: Seth Nevills, PSU, dec. Jack Heyob, 8-1
125: No. 7 Michael DeAugustino, N, dec. Brandon Meredith, 7-3
Takedowns: Northwestern 5, Penn State 28
Attendance: 6,333
Records: Northwestern (2-3, 0-2 Big Ten), Penn State (5-1, 2-0 Big Ten)
Next match: Rutgers at Penn State, Sunday, 5 p.m.
This story was originally published January 12, 2020 at 5:48 PM.
