Upset Valley: Haines, Facundo earn top-10 wins as Penn State routs Michigan on mat
There are a couple of nicknames when it comes to Penn State athletics in this area.
The common one of course is Happy Valley with football. There is Hockey Valley.
On Friday night, wrestling basically added another: Upset Valley.
A pair of Nittany Lions in Levi Haines and Alex Facundo each earned top-10 victories over their Michigan counterparts to lead No. 1 Penn State to a 30-8 rout over the No. 3 Wolverines inside the Bryce Jordan Center in front of 15,975 fans.
“This had the potential of being a really tight dual. These two getting those big wins, but it’s not even about winning the dual,” Nittany Lions coach Cael Sanderson said. “It’s just about getting better, progressing and going out there and being able to beat two of the top kids in the country like they just did. That’s good stuff. But, we’re just going to keep getting better.”
When Haines stepped on the mat, Penn State led 10-5. It was a close match, just as Sanderson had anticipated earlier in the week.
The true freshman took on No. 10 Will Lewan, who is a three-time NCAA qualifier and returning All-American at 157, in his first BJC bout. No. 17 Haines had the action early going for a shot attempt that was defended well by Lewan in the first period.
In the second period, Haines started from the bottom and quickly escaped. Again, the duo looked for an opening but nothing came about.
The third period had Lewan at the bottom. He escaped 3 seconds into the frame. Haines attempted several takedown attemps and fought off a Lewan shot over the remainder of the period, so it went to sudden victory.
The pair again jostled for that opening and bout-winning shot. Lewan appeared to have it early, but Haines was able to kick away. Lewan had another attempt, this time a deep double leg shot, Haines sprawled and fought it off.
Then, with 41 seconds left Haines countered a Lewan shot attempt for a single leg that he converted over to a double leg finish for the winning score.
“I was just going back to what I do at practice. This is just what we do,” Haines said of the win. “I just made up my mind, it was time to go get a takedown. I knew going into it that there was a potential for it to be a closer match. I just went out there and didn’t worry about that. I worried about what I was doing, keeping my hands inside, getting my control ties. I think when you’re doing that it’s pretty hard to get beat because you’re just doing your thing out there and being yourself.”
Facundo followed up Haines by taking on No. 5 Cameron Amine at 165 pounds, but had to wait until intermission was over.
He mentioned that he did take in Haines’ match as sort of a prep for what he could expect when he hit the mat inside the Bryce Jordan Center for the first time in his career.
The redshirt freshman scored the bout’s first points by taking Amine down with a single leg to double leg takedown, but Amine escaped to trail, 2-1, after one period.
Amine’s escape in the second was the lone point in the period as he fought off a late Facundo takedown attempt to tie the bout up.
The third period saw Facundo escape to claim an early 3-2 lead. With 20 seconds remaining, the pair got into a scramble situation where it looked like Amine recorded a takedown, but it wasn’t awarded. Faucndo granby rolled out and caught Amine’s ankle and secured a takedown awarded.
Amine’s coaches challenged the call, which was reversed giving the Michigan wrestler a 4-3 lead. Facundo escaped with 13 seconds remaining, and the pair went to sudden victory.
“I wasn’t too worried. That’s what makes it kind of fun, is like the close, close matches, the barnburner ones,” Facundo said. “I kind of liked that it went that way. I was able to wrestle a little bit more.”
Neither wrestler got anything in the sudden victory period, so it went to ride out periods. Facundo escaped 10 seconds into the first ride out period.
In Amine’s ride out period, Facundo never let Amine escape until 5 seconds remained; however Facundo’s 14 seconds in riding time gave him a 6-5 upset-win.
Penn State led 16-5, with its hammers coming up next.
“These two (Haines and Facundo) helped quite a bit. I think our guys just wrestled well, and were tough for the most part and in some tough situations,” Sanderson said. “Carter (Starocci) with bonus points, and Max (Dean) and Aaron (Brooks) three in a row there, that was nice.”
As Sanderson mentioned, his defending NCAA champions did what they do best, score bonus points.
Starocci built up a 6-2 lead before pinning No. 30 Max Maylor in 4 minutes, 15 seconds at 174 pounds. Brooks recorded a 14-4 major decision on No. 9 Matt Finesilver in a bout that saw Brooks tally six takedowns.
Dean secured a 10-1 major decision over Brendin Yatooma at 197 to take an 11-point lead and blow it open to a 25-point lead.
The Nittany Lions led 30-5 with heavyweight left, which put the No. 1 and No. 2 ranked wrestlers against each other in Penn State’s Greg Kerkvliet taking on Michigan’s Mason Parris.
Parris’ escaped in the second period was the first point of the match. In the third period, Kerkvliet countered with an opening escape 5 seconds in.
The Wolverines wrestler got a late counter takedown on Kerkvliet, who had several nice shot attempts in the bout, to secure a 3-1 “upset” win to end the dual.
The dual began in Michigan’s favor as No. 23 Jack Medley racked up a 19-3 technical fall over Gary Steen in 5:37 of wrestling at 125 pounds. However, Penn State won all the bouts between the bookend bouts for the Wolverines.
Roman Bravo-Young edged No. 12 Dylan Ragusin, who had an upset on his mind by taking down the defending NCAA champion in the first period, 4-2. Beau Bartlett used a nifty granby roll to tally a reversal in a 7-2 defeat of No. 23 Cole Mattin at 141.
Shayne Van Ness used four third-period takedowns to pummel Fidel Mayora, 14-4, before Haines saw the mat.
The Nittany Lions now turn their attention to No. 20 Michigan State, who suffered a 16-15 loss to Rutgers on Friday.
“Michigan’s got a great team. We’re going to see them again,” Sanderson said. “We’re just going to keep working on what we’re doing and getting better. We got more matches to look forward to.”
No. 1 Penn State 30, No. 3 Michigan 8
Friday at University Park
125: No. 23 Jack Medley, M, tech. fall Gary Steen, 19-3 (5:37)
133: No. 1 Roman Bravo-Young, PSU, dec. No. 12 Dylan Ragusin, 4-2
141: No. 4 Beau Bartlett, PSU, dec. No. 23 Cole Mattin, 7-2
149: No. 14 Shayne Van Ness, PSU, major dec. Fidel Mayora, 14-4
157: No. 17 Levi Haines, PSU, dec. No. 10 Will Lewan, 3-1 (SV)
165: No. 16 Alex Facundo, PSU, dec. No. 5 Cameron Amine, 6-5 (UTB 2)*
174: No. 1 Carter Starocci, PSU, pinned No. 30 Max Maylor, 4:15
184: No. 1 Aaron Brooks, PSU, major dec. No. 9 Matt Finesilver, 14-4
197: No. 4 Max Dean, PSU, major dec. Brendin Yatooma, 10-1
285: No. 2 Mason Parris, M, dec. No. 1 Greg Kerkvliet, 3-1
* — Facundo had 14 seconds in riding time for the deciding point
Takedowns: M 8, PSU 23
Records: Michigan (7-1, 2-1 Big Ten), Penn State (9-0, 2-0 Big Ten)
Next match: Michigan State at Penn State, Sunday, 1 p.m.
This story was originally published January 20, 2023 at 11:06 PM.
