Penn State loses the team title but makes a strong statement at NCAA Wrestling Championships
Penn State sent four wrestlers out onto the raised stage in the finals of the NCAA Championships on Saturday night in St. Louis, and four of them ran off national champions.
It didn’t matter that three of Penn State’s four national champs were considered underdogs in terms of seeding, that two had previously lost to their opponents or that two of those champs had never wrestled at NCAAs before this weekend. While Iowa had already wrapped up the team race — Saturday night belonged to the Nittany Lions.
For a program that’s used to winning — having won eight national team titles since 2011 — coming in second wasn’t the ideal outcome. But Penn State — including head coach Cael Sanderson — would be hard pressed to not come away with some optimism about the future of the program that fielded a lineup of six freshmen this postseason.
“You go up and down the lineup, and these guys did a really good job and I’m really proud of them,” Sanderson told reporters Saturday evening. “(I’m) excited about the future.”
Of Penn State’s four finals bouts, three went into overtime and the other was decided by a point in regulation. But Penn State’s four national champions — junior Roman Bravo-Young, senior Nick Lee, freshman Carter Starocci and sophomore Aaron Brooks — all stayed calm under pressure when it mattered the most.
The secret, as all four wrestlers alluded to in their post-match interviews, is their coach’s message of being grateful for the opportunity, relaxing and having fun.
“His message to us is always go have fun, be grateful for the moment,” Brooks said. “Not a lot of people get to compete for a national title, so it’s a blessing. He always reminds us of that and to go out there, like I said yesterday, like that little kid that you were watching the finals.”
One of the most unexpected wins for Penn State Saturday night came at 174 pounds, where Starocci, a redshirt freshman, topped Iowa’s sixth-year senior Michael Kemerer 3-1 in sudden victory. Kemerer had beaten Starocci 7-2 in the Big Ten finals just two weeks prior. Neither wrestler was able to score a takedown in regulation on Saturday, trading escapes to end the seven minutes tied 1-1. But it only took 14 seconds into the sudden victory period for Starocci to wrap up a double leg and take the senior to the mat for the win.
His teammate Bravo-Young could be seen on the ESPN broadcast with his mouth wide open, as Lee reacted by yelling and pumping his fist.
But while others may have been surprised by the result, the Erie Cathedral Prep grad wasn’t.
“Like I said yesterday, I’m the best, because I am and that’s what I believe,” Starocci said. “It’s a big credit to our coaches. We have the best coaches in our corner. When I had to dig deep in that match, I looked to my corner and was like, ‘Dang, all of these guys (Lee and Bravo-Young before him) won this match, so now I’m about to go do it.’ So that’s pretty cool and I feel like that’s a lot of energy and power in itself right there.”
Yet, despite all of Penn State’s success Saturday night, it still was unable to catch the Hawkeyes, finishing 15.5 points behind, 129 to 113.5. Sanderson credited that fact partially to the Nittany Lions’ lack of other point scorers in the tournament, as well as to the strength of Iowa’s team.
The Hawkeyes are led by now-three-time national champ Spencer Lee, who admitted after his 7-0 finals victory that he had again been wrestling on a torn ACL, just as he had been when he won the 2019 NCAA title. Because of the NCAA’s decision to not have this year count toward student-athletes’ eligibility clocks, Iowa could return its full team next season.
“They’ve got a really good team this year and they competed really well and won a lot of tough matches,” Sanderson said. “We just need a couple more point scorers in there, but the goal is always just to be the best you can be. We’re just grateful to be here win or lose.”
In addition to its national champs, Penn State had two other wrestlers earn All-American honors — redshirt freshmen Micheal Beard (197 pounds) and Greg Kerkvliet (heavyweight) — who both finished seventh. The most devastating loss of the weekend for the Nittany Lions was when junior Brady Berge, who had battled concussion issues last season, was injured during his quarterfinal bout at 157 pounds and had to medically default then forfeit from competition.
True freshman Robert Howard went 2-2 at 125 pounds as the No. 23 seed, including, most notably, an upset win over Ohio State’s Malik Heinselman, who defeated the Nittany Lion twice earlier this season. Redshirt freshman Joe Lee went 0-2 at 165 pounds in his first NCAA Championships experience.
Sanderson has specifically mentioned two of those wrestlers several times this postseason — Kerkvliet and Howard. Both have dealt with injury issues that have limited their training time.
“He was told he was out for three months,” Sanderson said of Kerkvliet. “He couldn’t lift a weight, couldn’t go for a jog for six or seven weeks, and he got cleared literally the day before we wrestled Maryland. Then he wrestled and ended up being an All-American.
“Robert Howard, a similar thing, he had a surgery after the New Jersey state tournament last year ... so he didn’t get a lot of time to learn college wrestling. But he jumped out there and wrestled big for us.”
While this year — and last, before the pandemic shut things down — undoubtedly belonged to the Hawkeyes, Penn State sent a clear message Saturday night that it’s not going anywhere.
Sanderson has spoken throughout the season about wanting to set up a “new wave” of wrestlers who can help Penn State win Big Ten and NCAA titles, and continue the dominance it has enjoyed for most of the past decade. While it remains to be seen if this batch of young Nittany Lions can match the accolades of the likes of David Taylor, Ed Ruth, Zain Retherford, Bo Nickal and Jason Nolf, at least one of them has full confidence in the team’s ability to keep improving.
“We had a good showing and it’s going to be better next year and the year after that,” Starocci said. “We’re all going to get better and we’re going to win some team titles and we’re going to be the best team.”
This story was originally published March 21, 2021 at 8:00 AM.
