Why Cael Sanderson, Penn State wrestlers aren’t concerning themselves with Big Ten seeds
Penn State wrestling coach Cael Sanderson didn’t have an answer Monday when asked about his thoughts on the pre-seeds for this weekend’s Big Ten Championships.
His face dripping with sweat, Sanderson had just finished a workout with Nittany Lion Wrestling Club member and 2016 Olympic gold medalist Kyle Snyder, and wasn’t even aware that the preliminary seeds had been released.
“I don’t get too caught up in that, I’m not too worried about it,” Sanderson said after a quick glance at the seeds on the sports information director’s phone. “I’m not going to lose any sleep over it. We’ve got to go wrestle, go compete.”
While taking a quick break from training to talk to the media, Sanderson stressed the importance of his team tuning out outside expectations while wrestling with “fire and enthusiasm.” It was an important message, as Sanderson’s bringing a somewhat inexperienced team to Piscataway, New Jersey, with only five wrestlers who’ve previously competed at the conference tournament.
Penn State was awarded three No. 1 pre-seeds for the tournament in Nick Lee (141 pounds), Vincenzo Joseph (165) and Aaron Brooks (184), the most of any Big Ten school. As a freshman, Brooks will be one of those making his first postseason appearance. Only senior Mark Hall, the No. 2 seed at 174, has ever won a Big Ten title, winning both his sophomore and junior seasons.
Lee, who will likely be looking at a rematch with Ohio State’s No. 2 Luke Pletcher for the rights to the top seed at nationals, isn’t too concerned with his teammates’ lack of postseason experience.
“These guys have been wrestling the whole season now, they’ve been in big tournaments before — nothing like the Big Ten tournament probably — but I don’t want them to have in their head that it’s anything other than just another tournament because it’s not,” he said. “I just want them to be their best just like any other tournament. ... I think they’re ready to go.”
Besides Brooks, the other wrestlers making their first postseason appearances are redshirt freshman Brandon Meredith (125), sophomore Jarod Verkleeren (149), freshman Seth Nevills (285) and junior Bo Pipher (157), whom Sanderson said beat out fellow junior Luke Gardner for the spot this past week.
Pipher has held down 157 pounds for most of the season for Penn State, after a preseason head injury largely kept projected starter Brady Berge off the mat. Pipher, the No. 13 seed, will have to finish in the top six this weekend to earn a trip to Minneapolis for NCAAs in two weeks. But on Monday afternoon, that was the furthest thing from Pipher’s mind.
In fact, he didn’t even know his seed or the number of allocations at his weight class. To him, this weekend is just another opportunity to wrestle.
“I don’t feel a whole lot different,” he said. “I’m obviously really excited to go wrestle, but it’s just the same thing as every other week, just going out and wrestling matches.”
In addition to the three top pre-seeds, Penn State also has a pair of No. 2s in Hall and sophomore Roman Bravo-Young (133 pounds). But it’s the other five — Meredith, Verkleeren, Pipher, Nevills and senior Shakur Rasheed — who Penn State will need to score some points to have a chance at overcoming the favorite in Iowa and defending its conference tournament title.
Iowa has all 10 wrestlers pre-seeded in the top three, including two No. 1s in Spencer Lee at 125 and Michael Kemerer at 174.
But just as Sanderson isn’t concerned about his team’s seeds, he’s also not concerned about Iowa’s.
“It doesn’t really change anything for us, other than we are still trying to score as many points as we can,” Sanderson said. “We can’t control any other team, so all we can do is get in there and score as many points as we can, and, again, wrestle with that fire and enthusiasm. And if we do that, we like our chances.”
Penn State has the most opportunity to gain some ground at 149 pounds, with Verkleeren. At 15-6 on the season, the sophomore has seemed to be peaking at the right time, going 2-2 in his past four matches against ranked opponents, with his two losses coming in sudden victory.
As the No. 8 pre-seed, Verkleeren will have to finish in the top 10 this weekend to advance to NCAAs. He was feeling good on Monday about his chances and the improvement he’s made this season.
“I think I just had room to grow. I started off the year kind of rough, but just kind of been getting better and better,” he said. “I know that I can wrestle with these guys, so that’s what I’m going to do at Big Tens.”
At this point in the season, Sanderson said his wrestlers have already put in all the work and made most of the improvements they’re going to make, and now it’s just about getting them in the right frame of mind to consistently put in their best effort for however many matches they have remaining.
If that happens, Sanderson believes the rest will work itself out.
“We try to do our our best and historically our guys have wrestled at their best (during the postseason), especially at nationals,” Sanderson said. “But it’s up to the kids, and every year it’s different. It’s their choice, but I think they’re ready to go and I’m excited for them and really just excited to see what they do with the opportunity.”
This story was originally published March 3, 2020 at 11:33 AM.
