Friday night was the final Bryce Jordan Center dual of the season for Penn State’s wrestling team.
The Nittany Lions have done what they’ve done for the last five years — come out victorious in a dual. They won their 67th straight match with ease, 39-0.
Here are three takeaways:
Where in the world is Braeden Davis?
A week ago against Iowa, Davis sat out as coach Cael Sanderson said he was “a little banged up from a week ago.”
Davis was out of the lineup again Friday night against Michigan.
When he has wrestled, he has had his right leg heavily taped since suffering an injury during the opening-season dual with Drexel on Nov. 17.
“I think he’ll be fine. He just had to kind of wrestle through that. We’ll take care of it and make sure he has the time he needs to get back to full speed if he’s not full speed soon,” Sanderson said at the time. “It’s early November. I don’t think they’ve given him a full look yet, so we’ll figure it out.”
With Davis being out back-to-back weeks now, it has to make one wonder what exactly is wrong with the reigning 125-pound Big Ten champion.
Penn State’s Beau Bartlett controls Michigan’s Sergio Lemley in the 141 lb bout of the match on Friday, Feb. 7, 2025 in the Bryce Jordan Center. Abby Drey adrey@centredaily.com
Beau Bartlett needs to get offensive
Bartlett has mentioned several times this year about how he’s ready to show people what he can do.
He’s had times where he’s shown off how good his offense can be, but it seems like he just doesn’t do it all the time. If Bartlett were more offensive, he probably would’ve won a Big Ten and NCAA title last year.
Friday night, Bartlett wasn’t offensive at all, but got what he needed to get another close win. Close wins will only get a wrestler so far, but if they want titles, they need to score points.
Penn State’s Mitchell Mesenbrink controls Michigan’s Beau Mantanona in the 165 lb bout of the match on Friday, Feb. 7, 2025 in the Bryce Jordan Center. Mesenbrink won by major decision, 18-4. Abby Drey adrey@centredaily.com
Mesenbrink well on his way toward the Hodge
The regular season is nearly over, and there are just two wrestlers in the country that are recording bonus points in all of their wins.
Mesenbrink is one of them. The other is Minnesota’s Gable Steveson, but he has wrestled half the matches that Mesenbrink has.
The Nittany Lions wrestler has 12 technical falls, two forfeits and Friday night’s major decision to remain at a perfect 100 percent bonus-point to win ratio. Steveson has six technical falls and two pins in his 8-0 mark.
Penn State’s Kyison Garcia wrestles Michigan’s Nolan Wertanen in the 133 lb bout of the match on Friday, Feb. 7, 2025 in the Bryce Jordan Center. Abby Drey adrey@centredaily.com
This story was originally published February 7, 2025 at 8:07 PM.
Nate Cobler is a part-time reporter covering all things wrestling, either Penn State or Centre County’s high schools, for the Centre Daily Times. He’ll also cover other sports too. When he isn’t writing about sports, he is working for a local mortgage broker, Providence Mortgage Group.
