Gary Steen’s upset win gets Penn State wrestling rolling early in rout of Michigan State
Penn State was in an unusual situation on Sunday when it took on Michigan State inside Rec Hall.
The Nittany Lions had the lead after the first bout of the dual for the first time since the Rider match on Dec. 2.
They used that early momentum to rack up a dominating 34-6 win over the No. 20 Spartans without Aaron Brooks to remain undefeated. It sets up another battle of unbeatens inside the Bryce Jordan Center on Friday, when No. 2 Iowa comes to town.
“When you’re wrestling all these matches, you’re not thinking about this match. You’re thinking about the next time you’re wrestling,” Penn State coach Cael Sanderson said of the weekend. “We’re just always trying to look ahead and compete, like preparing for (the) next time you wrestle.
“If you do that you’re going to get good results. I think we had a good weekend against two solid Michigan teams. Michigan State had the potential to be a tough match, especially if you have Roman (Bravo-Young) and Aaron out of the lineup.”
Sanderson and co. have stuck by Gary Steen’s side all season long, when in the past couple of years they’ve tried to snag someone from the transfer portal or off the street to fill the void at 125.
That positive reinforcement and consistent belief paid off on Sunday as Steen pulled off the biggest win of his career.
The redshirt freshman came out firing shots on No. 24 Tristan Lujan. Steen got deep on two single leg shots in the first period, but came up short on finishing them off on the Spartans wrestler.
“Gary can wrestle. He was just down on himself a little bit, a couple matches. He’s wrestling experienced guys,” Sanderson said. “It was great. I think everyone was happy for him. Hopefully, it’s something that can be contagious, he just decides he’s just going to go wrestle like that all the time, because he beat a good wrestler.
“Michigan State’s guy is a tough wrestler. He almost scored a few times. He had opportunities to maybe get frustrated or give up, but he chose to stay tough and go get that takedown in overtime. It’s pretty cool.”
Like Sanderson said, it could’ve been very easy for Steen to just give up after the two failed takedown attempts, but he didn’t. Instead, Steen fought off a Lujan shot in the second period and forced sudden victory with an escape in the third period.
In the sudden victory period, Steen kept on the offensive. He attempted a shot that turned into a scramble with Lujan. It ultimately got stopped due to a stalemate. Then, with 41 seconds remaining, Steen shot again and finished it off for the 3-1 victory over the ranked wrestler.
“It’s always nice starting out with a win. I think Gary’s gaining more confidence as each day goes on,” Carter Starocci said. “I think he’s starting to figure those things out for himself. He’s working hard and doing what he has to do. It’s good to see him get that win, hopefully boost his confidence, and just keep looking forward.”
Roman Bravo-Young was in the lineup for the Nittany Lions at 133, even though that wasn’t part of the original plan. The defending champion said he wasn’t very happy with how his match went Friday night, so Sunday was more about challenging himself.
He wasn’t thrilled that he beat Michigan’s Dylan Ragusin by riding him out. RBY said he made his mind up late Saturday night, and Sanderson confirmed.
“I found out late last night he was going to wrestle. I was excited to see Baylor (Shunk) wrestle. He was ready to go,” Sanderson said. “He’s a great kid. One of those kids, that really add a lot to your program — always ready to go, great attitudes, coachable and a local guy, but having Roman wrestle took a lot of pressure off the rest of the lineup.
“I think that was a big thing for him to do that. He chose to wrestle because he knew it had the potential to be a tight match. He saw a need and competed for the team, so I think that’s pretty special.”
It’s safe to say that the No. 1 wrestler in the country passed the challenging of himself, and helped the team at the same time.
RBY racked up a 13-4 lead thanks to six takedowns before chin-whipping No. 16 RayVon Foley to his back for a pin in 6:26 — his 10th career fall. It was the 45th straight win for the champ and his first ever against a Michigan State wrestler. Until Sunday, RBY had never faced off with a Spartans wrestler.
The Nittany Lions lead 9-0 and continued to roll.
Beau Bartlett followed with a 7-1 win over Jordan Hamdan. Shayne Van Ness built up a 13-3 lead on Braden Stauffenberg, before flattening the Michigan State wrestler in 5:44.
Terrell Barraclough got the call at 157 for Penn State, leaving fans to wonder if Levi Haines’ redshirt would be coming off or not. It could be decided on Friday, but Sanderson was non-committal.
“We just kind of went through the plan. Levi obviously had a great win on Friday. Terrell was close again. He was right there with another an All American possible candidate type of guy,” Sanderson said. “If Levi wrestles again, his redshirt is pulled, so we got to be careful with that. We will have to figure that one out as we press on here. I think Terrell is right there and Levi is right there.
“Obviously, they’re both going to compete hard. That’s a decision that we’re going to have to make here in the next little while. I don’t think it has to be done by Friday kind of a deal, but sooner rather than later is usually better.”
Barraclough took on No. 15 Chase Saldate, and recorded the first points of the match with a takedown midway through the first period. It was all Saldate after that.
He escaped to trail 2-1 after one period. In the second period, Saldate rode Barraclough for the entire period. He opened the third period with an escape, and with less than one second remaining, Saldate picked up a takedown and nearfall points to win 6-2.
Penn State led 18-3 at the break.
Out of the break, Alex Facundo got another crack at a ranked wrestler in No. 25 Caleb Fish at 165. The pair traded escapes to go to sudden victory.
Facundo hit a slick duck under on Fish for a takedown with 44 seconds remaining in sudden victory for the 3-1 win.
“He had a great weekend. Alex is another guy, I mean, we just have a lot of guys to talk about, but my plan wasn’t really to wrestle him yet,” said Sanderson, who made it seem like Facundo needed more time to recover from an injury he suffered against Iowa State in December.
“He’s wrestling great. He wanted to wrestle and look good. He had two big wins against two tough guys. Both (were in) overtime too. So if you’re a freshman, you can go win a big match in overtime, keep your composure and go fire a nice shot under those circumstances, that’s a good sign of things to come.”
Carter Starocci followed Facundo by recording a 19-4 technical fall in 6:39 on Cesar Garza. The defending champion tallied seven takedowns in the win.
No. 15 Layne Malczewski picked up the other win for the Spartans at 184 as Donovon Ball got the start in place of Brooks like all season. Malczewski proved to be too much in a 6-0 win.
Max Dean picked up a nice 4-0 defeat of No. 14 Cameron Caffey at 197. Greg Kerkvliet rebounded nicely from Friday’s loss to Michigan’s Mason Parris with a 19-4 technical fall in 4:15.
“I thought Max Dean wrestled really well. He was close to scoring a few times. Caffey is tough and hard to score on,” Sanderson said. “Max just wrestled very wisely. He’s wrestling better and better. Even in these big matches with top kids this year, you kind of seen a pattern of what were their plans are coming into wrestling. You got to make adjustments. I thought he made some good adjustments today, so hopefully that’ll help him as he moves forward.”
No. 1 Penn State 34, No. 20 Michigan State 6
Sunday at University Park
125: Gary Steen, PSU, dec. No. 24 Tristan Lujan, 3-1 (SV)
133: No. 1 Roman Bravo-Young, PSU, pinned No. 16 RayVon Foley, 6:26
141: No. 4 Beau Bartlett, PSU, dec. Jordan Hamdan, 7-1
149: No. 14 Shayne Van Ness, PSU, pinned Braden Stauffenberg, 5:44
157: No. 15 Chase Saldate, MSU, dec. Terrell Barraclough, 6-2
165: No. 16 Alex Facundo, PSU, dec. No. 25 Caleb Fish, 3-1 (SV)
174: No. 1 Carter Starocci, PSU, tech. fall Ceasar Garza, 19-4 (6:39)
184: No. 15 Layne Malczewski, MSU, dec. Donovon Ball, 6-0
197: No. 4 Max Dean, PSU, dec. No. 14 Cameron Caffey, 4-0
285: No. 1 Greg Kerkvliet, PSU, tech. fall Ryan Vasbinder, 19-4 (4:15)
Extra matches
165: Brian Borden, PSU, dec. Miles Hoey, 7-2
Takedowns: MSU 3, PSU 29
Records: Michigan State (7-4, 0-4 Big Ten), Penn State (10-0, 3-0 Big Ten)
Next match: No. 2 Iowa at Penn State, Friday, Bryce Jordan Center, 7 p.m.
