5 takeaways from Penn State wrestling’s first day at the Big Ten championships
Penn State had mixed results in its first day at the 2020 Big Ten wrestling championships Saturday at the Rutgers Athletic Center.
While the Nittany Lions have five finalists and another battling for third, three wrestlers have been eliminated — one by injury — and another is wrestling for ninth.
Penn State sits at fourth in the team race with 93.5 points. Iowa leads with 121.5 points followed by Nebraska with 102. 5 and Ohio State rounds with 94.
Here’s five takeaways from what happened so far for the Nittany Lions:
1) Another injury deals another blow to Penn State’s NCAA title hopes
Penn State has been holding onto a slight glimmer of hope that it can overtake presumptive favorite Iowa for the NCAA title, after already losing 2019 national champ Anthony Cassar, 2018 All-American graduate transfer Kyle Conel and 2019 NCAA qualifier Brady Berge to injury. But that glimmer got even smaller Saturday with yet another injury.
Freshman heavyweight Seth Nevills, who was pulled out of redshirt after Cassar’s season ended, appeared to injure his left knee in his first-round bout with with Alex Esposito, of Rutgers. Nevills was unable to finish the match and dropped into consolations. He then medically forfeited out of the tournament.
If Nevills is healthy enough, there’s still a chance he could earn an at-large bid to NCAAs. But with not a lot of time to recover between now and March March 19, that doesn’t seem likely.
At 13-4, including the medical forfeit loss, on the season, Nevills wasn’t expected to score a lot of points at the national tournament, but every point matters when going up against Iowa.
2) Freshman jitters aren’t a thing for Aaron Brooks
If any positives can be taken away from the injury bug that hit the Nittany Lions this year, it’s the introduction of Aaron Brooks into the lineup.
The freshman, who spent the previous year training at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, has proven he was clearly ready to wrestle this season.
Brooks looked like a seasoned veteran in his first Big Ten tournament. Nebraska’s Taylor Venz took Brooks down then to his back in the first period of their semifinal bout. The back points, however, weren’t awarded and the two were tied heading into the second. But Brooks wasn’t fazed by the close call.
Down a point, Brooks saw the pinning combination and went for it, avenging his only loss of the season in four minutes.
“The pin was there so I took it,” Brooks said matter-of-factly to Penn State’s in-house media.
He was also in a close match in his first-round bout against Minnesota’s Owen Webster. Brooks was leading by just two heading into the third when he unleashed unleashed five takedowns in a period to roll to the 15-4 major decision.
“I think Brooks is getting better every match. You can tell he really believes in his conditioning now and shots and shot finishes and mat wrestling,” coach Cael Sanderson said. “Everything’s great. He beat a really good guy in the semifinals, one of the title contenders for sure.”
He’ll face Michigan State’s Cam Caffey in the finals on Sunday.
3) Penn State’s lack of depth is dooming it in the team race
Penn State has five finalists, more than any other school, but still sits in fourth place in the team race with 93.5 points.
Iowa, which has four finalists, leads everyone with 121.5 points — a 28-point difference with the Nittany Lions.
Sanderson laid out the issue after the Nittany Lions’ final bout of the evening.
“Our guys that wrestle well consistently wrestled well today,” Sanderson said. “We had four guys at four weights, that I think we scored one point, that makes it hard to compete as a team.”
While the Hawkeyes have four in the finals, they also have five alive in consolations. Punxsutawney native Kaleb Young went 0-2 and was eliminated. But compared to Iowa, Penn State has just two others still alive. Shakur Rasheed will be wrestling for third place in the consolation bracket, and Jarod Verkleeren is battling for a trip to NCAAs in the ninth-place bracket.
It will be those other five guys for the Hawkeyes who will ultimately win them the Big Ten title.
The Nittany Lions could also be in jeopardy for second, as current second-place Nebraska (102. 5 points) has one finalists and nine others in consolations, and third-place Ohio State (94) has three finalists and five in consolations.
Depth has been Penn State’s problem all season long. And despite having stars as good as Vincenzo Joseph, Mark Hall, Nick Lee, Roman Bravo-Young and Brooks, the lack of points elsewhere will make it very difficult to compete for a team title — no matter how many bonus points those guys get.
4) Rasheed impresses while Verkleeren disappoints
Heading into Big Tens, 149 and 197 pounds were the two weight classes where it appeared Penn State could gain the most ground, if both Jarod Verkleeren and Shakur Rasheed were wrestling at their bests.
Uncertainty has surrounded both wrestlers this season as Rasheed had been struggling to get back to his old form after offseason ACL surgery, and Verkleeren had dealt with inconsistency, but appeared to be hitting his stride at the end of the season.
The two had very different performances Saturday.
Rasheed seemed to ride the confidence he gained from his Senior Night pin into the Big Ten tournament. His takedown-cradle-pin of Illinois’ Matt Wroblewski had him looking more like the Shak of Old than he has all season. He then avenged his earlier loss to Iowa’s Jacob Warner, winning 3-1. He ended up falling 5-4 in the semifinals to Nebraska’s Eric Schultz and is still in the hunt for third.
“He’s wrestling better than he has all year, as you can tell, and he needs to just continue on in that in that direction,” Sanderson said. “And I think he will.”
Verkleeren, on the other had, has gone 0-2 to start the tournament. He’s still alive in the ninth-place bracket, as 10 wrestlers from the Big Ten will earn automatic qualifications at 149.
He need to win just one match to make it, but that one match is against Northwestern’s Yahya Thomas, who beat Verkleeren 6-3 in the opening round.
5) Sunday will be fun
Even though Sanderson was disappointed in his team’s overall performance Saturday, he admitted that even he is looking forward to some of Penn State’s Sunday matches.
Chief on that list — Bravo-Young vs. Northwestern’s Sebastian Rivera. Both are exciting, high-energy wrestlers who can seemingly score from any position.
“It should be a fun match,” Sanderson said. “Rivera’s obviously really quick and tough and there’s a great wrestler with a lot of experience.. This is our first opportunity to wrestle him, and we’ll see how it goes.”
The top four wrestlers at 133 pounds in the Big Ten are widely regarded as four of the best in the nation, so how the sophomore does against Rivera could be a good indicator of his NCAA title chances.
While Bravo-Young and Rivera will be meeting for the first time, three of Penn State’s other finalists are much more familiar with their opponents. Joseph’s bout will be a rematch of last year’s Big Ten championship with Iowa’s Alex Marinelli, who beat the Nittany Lion 9-3. Anytime the two match up is exciting, and none more so than the pair’s dual meet matchup in January. Joseph won that one 7-5 with a lateral drop.
Another Penn State-Iowa rematch will be between Mark Hall and Michael Kemerer at 174 pounds. Kemerer came out on top in the dual, the pair’s lone meeting. Hall said a few weeks later that he believes he learned his lesson from that match — if you start a big move, you have to finish it.
“Let’s do what we do, and see where we land, but I like Mark, he’s my guy,” Sanderson said of the rematch. “I think he is ready to go. Kemerer is a stud also, so should be a great match.”
Lee will wrestle his second match with Ohio State’s Luke Pletcher, whom he beat 8-4 in February. Pletcher, Kemerer and Marinelli are regarded as the top threats to the Nittany Lion trio’s hopes of winning national titles.
Brooks’ match against Caffey, who had won his last 10 matches heading into Big Tens, will also be a good indicator what Brooks might be able to do in a weight class that’s suddenly a lot more open with the suspension of Arizona State’s Zahid Valencia.
