Penn State wrestling notebook: Brady Berge return just a ‘matter of making sure he’s feeling good’
In a surprise return to the mat, 157-pounder Brady Berge returned to Penn State wrestling’s roster last week.
Prior to walking away from the sport in April, Berge compiled a 31-9 record with the Nittany Lions — qualifying for the NCAA Wrestling Championships two times. He suffered an injury and forfeited. The senior went on to join South Dakota State’s coaching staff, where he will return following the completion of his final season at Penn State.
Berge arrived back to campus on Sunday and began his classes Monday. During media availability on Tuesday, head coach Cael Sanderson said he’s looking forward to Berge rejoining the team, but he’ll have to work his way back into shape and earn his spot.
“We’ve just got to figure out what the plan is moving forward here, not only with him, but also the other guys obviously, in the weight and making sure that there is a wrestle off. Do we need to wrestle off? There’s all of those different questions that we have. Those are some things we’ve got to work out,” Sanderson said. “Obviously, Brady has a ton of experience and for him, it’s just a matter of making sure he’s feeling good and he’s healthy. And when he’s ready, he’ll go.”
Additions bring more competitiveness
The moves have brought an added level of competitiveness to the roster, according to 149-pound wrestler Beau Bartlett. Bartlett believes that the transfers will push the team in the right direction moving forward.
“I think it shows that everyone wants to be at their best and bringing in people that also really want to be national champions (and) really want to be on top of the podium in March,” Bartlett said. “The more people we can have there in the room. ... (It) just elevates everyone and motivates everyone to keep going.”
Berge becomes the second wrestler to join the team in the spring semester, following Central Michigan All-American transfer Drew Hildebrandt joining the team. The 125-pound Hildebrandt had his first match on Friday, defeating Maryland’s Zach Spence in 1 minute, 38 seconds.
A busy January
Penn State now sits firmly within its Big Ten schedule for the remainder of the regular season. It’ll make for a competitive January, which will feature six meets. Penn State defeated Maryland 46-0 on the road on Friday and Indiana at home, 29-11 on Sunday. The Nittany Lions’ remaining matchups in January include at home against Rutgers, at Michigan, at Michigan State and at Iowa, making for a busy time for Sanderson’s squad.
It also calls for a great deal of traveling to the Midwest and back to State College, which Sanderson said can be tough on his wrestlers.
“Sometimes in the Big Ten being in State College, it’s a long trip,” Sanderson said. “So, I think we’re good this year, but the main concerns I have this time of year (are) when we were traveling to the Midwest and then back competing in the same weekend. Those kinds of trips and the travel makes it more difficult and we’re flying commercial or bus. It’s those little things that just take a lot of discipline on our guys’ part.”
National dual championships
The NCAA Division I football season has come to a close with Georgia’s 33-18 victory against Southeastern Conference rival Alabama on Monday night. What does that have to do with wrestling? Sanderson said that bringing in a college football-like bowl system could be advantageous for collegiate wrestling — bringing the top non-traditional matchups together. This would be done in the form of a national dual meet.
Penn State took on Northern Iowa, Cornell and Arizona State from Dec. 20-21 in the Collegiate Wrestling Duals, where the Nittany Lions went 3-0. Events akin to the duals would be the blueprint for the vision.
“I think my concern would be (that) we like the way the national tournament is now and we don’t want to change that team format to where the team championship is given a dual meet format,” Sanderson said. “But as far as an event and following along with what football has done — obviously, they’ve gone away from it, but for good reason. Having a Bowl Championship (or) something along that line where you just have non-traditional matchups and this means there’s a lot of different points of view. (I’m) definitely not against having those big events. And I think that (it) was a lot of fun.”
Bartlett said that it could boost the sport to have more meetings like the Journeyman Duals on Nov. 13. The Nittany Lions took on Sacred Heart and Oregon State for a clean 2-0 sweep. It was their first opportunity of the season to take on opponents that they wouldn’t otherwise face in the regular season.
“I think it’s it’s cool for the hype,” Bartlett said. “I think typically, you get you get that in a sense with like the Big Ten scheduled because on average, I feel like most of the top teams are in the Big Ten. So, no matter what, we are getting the head-to-head matches. It’s just not in a tournament format. But we are wrestling pretty much all the top teams. So either way, we’re just getting the mat. We’re getting the matches in a little different order. It’s not as condensed as these matches back-to-back-to-back. It gets tough, like in the tournament setting, if you had like four big duals. I like the way it’s paced right now. But I’m open to whatever happens.”
Brooks named Big Ten Wrestler of the Week
On Tuesday, the Big Ten announced its weekly Wrestler of the Week honor and the Nittany Lions’ Aaron Brooks scooped up the honor.
It is the second time this year that Brooks has been awarded this title. Greg Kerkvliet is the only other Penn State wrestler to earn the award.
Brooks is 8-0 on the season for the Nittany Lions. All but one of his victories has come with bonus points — four major decisions, one technical fall and two pins.
Beard update
Michael Beard was injured in the Southern Scuffle, where he went 4-1 before being unable to finish the championship match against Missouri’s Rocky Elam. Sanderson said he did not have an update to provide on Tuesday.
“There were just some circumstances that have prevented him from being able to move forward in that realm. There’s nothing that I can discuss. I think he’s feeling good and he’ll be good to go here shortly. But I don’t really have any updates at this time,” he said.
This story was originally published January 11, 2022 at 5:11 PM.
