Here are 3 takeaways from Penn State wrestling’s season-opening wins over Sacred Heart & Oregon State
The Nittany Lions unsurprisingly dominated their first-two opponents of the 2021-22 season, topping Sacred Heart and Oregon State 47-3 and 32-7, respectively, on Saturday at the Journeymen Duals in Manheim. But there’s more to take away from these duals beyond the final score.
Penn State had several new faces in its lineup — including Cornell transfer Max Dean — turned up the dial on bonus points, and more.
Here are three takeaways from Penn State’s season debut:
There is a lot of wrestling ahead
While Penn State does have some holes and questions in its lineup, it has an advantage it didn’t have last year — a full season. In last year’s shortened, conference-only dual season, Penn State had several freshmen with very limited collegiate experience before getting thrown into the postseason.
After going 5-0 in the extra bouts, true freshman Beau Bartlett wrestled just twice in duals after winning the starting spot at 149. It was a similar story for freshmen Robert Howard and Greg Kerkvliet, both of whom were coming off injuries. The latter wrestled just one dual before his fourth-place finish at Big Tens and seventh-place finish at NCAAs to become an All-American.
This year, Penn State’s young team will have four full months to develop, which will be significant for the Nittany Lions in taking on a very veteran Iowa team (see seventh-year senior Micheal Kemerer). While Howard is out of the lineup for now, again dealing with injury, Bartlett and Kerkvliet already showed major signs of improvement — and still have 12 more duals plus the Collegiate Wrestling Duals to get better.
The extra time will also help Penn State answer those few remaining questions marks — particularly at 125, 157 and 165 pounds — three weights coach Cael Sanderson pointed out earlier as being the most competitive in the practice room. Penn State has a lot of young talent on its team, including freshmen Gary Steen (125), Shayne Van Ness (149) and Alex Facundo (165). Whether any of those wrestlers crack the lineup this season remains to be seen, but the point is that they have time. There will be plenty of open tournaments — such as the Clarion Open last weekend — where non-starters can get experience without burning eligibility.
As Sanderson said during last week’s media availability, there’s a “long but exciting season ahead,” and plenty of time for Penn State to figure out its best lineup.
Penn State setting the tone with bonus points
Bonus points was a reoccurring topic at Penn State’s season-opening media availability last week. It was for good reason, as scoring more points was one of the factors Sanderson cited when asked how the Nittany Lions can close the gap on last year’s national champion Hawkeyes.
Penn State got off to a hot start in the bonus point column on Saturday, earning 13 bonus-point victories between the two duals and 72 near-fall points. While the Nittany Lions clearly outmatched their two opponents, it should have still been encouraging for Sanderson and his coaching staff to see their wrestlers piling on the points.
Last season, while it was shorter, no Nittany Lion recorded more than two pins. Those wrestlers were Bartlett, Kerkvliet and Joe Lee. Roman Bravo-Young, Howard and Carter Starocci were the only other starters at the end of the season who recorded a pin. At just two duals in this season, Bravo-Young and Starocci have already tied their records from last year, and Kerkvliet is half-way there.
The change was most apparent in younger wrestlers such as Starocci and Kerkvliet, who have already built up reputations of being good on their feet. But on Saturday, the pair showed they can also go to work from the top position, too, tallying up 16 near-fall points between them.
While Sanderson said his team still has work to do in that area, Saturday was a good start.
A new ‘murderers’ row’?
Ever since Sanderson and his staff took over 12 years ago, Penn State has gone through various iterations of a “murderers’ row” at its upper weights. Whether it’s David Taylor, Matt Brown, Ed Ruth and Quentin Wright; Zain Retherford, Jason Nolf, Vincenzo Joseph, Mark Hall, Shakur Rasheed, Bo Nickal and Anthony Cassar, or various other combinations of those wrestlers, the back end of Penn State’s lineup always seems to more than make up for whatever deficiencies might exist in lower or middle weights.
It appears as though that tradition will continue with a new murderers’ row from 174 pounds up in Starocci, Aaron Brooks, Dean and Kerkvliet. The group went 8-for-8 in bonus-point victories Saturday night. Defending national champs Starocci and Brooks each had a technical fall and a pin, newcomer Dean earned a tech fall and a major decision, and Kerkvliet had a pin, followed by a tech fall over the No. 24-ranked wrestler in Gary Traub.
Getting bonus points is part of the murders’ row criteria. Not only were those wrestlers relied upon to get wins themselves, they were often relied upon to make up for lost team points to earn the dual victory. Whether or not these four can live up to the standards set by those before them will remain to be seen, but if they can, that will cause major problems for opposing teams.
If the back-end of Penn State’s lineup can produce a 16-24-point swing, its going to be hard to beat.
This story was originally published November 14, 2021 at 8:38 AM.
