Three takeaways from Penn State wrestling’s 36-6 victory over Lehigh
Penn State returned home on Sunday afternoon to host Lehigh inside Rec Hall after topping Drexel on Friday night.
The Nittany Lions wrestled again without Aaron Nagao at 141 pounds, and came away with a 36-6 victory over the Mountain Hawks, who were missing half of their starting lineup.
“Our guys were very aggressive, moving forward and scored a lot of points. They’re getting better and looking better,” Nittany Lions coach Cael Sanderson said. “Lehigh does a really good job. We have a lot of love and respect for them. They’re going to show you what you need to work on. We kind of count on that every year.”
Penn State won eight of the ten bouts, recording bonus points in six of the victories — one fall, an injury default, two technical falls and two major decisions.
Here are three takeaways from the programs’ 112th meeting:
Duke poised to become king
PJ Duke was in one of the four matchups that featured ranked wrestlers squaring off against one another on Sunday.
He controlled No. 10 Logan Rozynski at 157 pounds from the start. Duke collected four takedowns, while forcing three stall calls, but couldn’t get his offense going until the second period.
“That’s how tough matches usually go, we’re so used to seeing highlight reels that you think you just go out there and score right away. Usually, you got to wear guys down and then you start scoring points later,” Sanderson said of Duke’s match. “I thought he wrestled really well. He didn’t get frustrated. He was really close to scoring a couple of times.”
He won the match by injury default in 5:46 as Rozynski suffered a right arm injury on the last takedown from Duke. With the win, the true freshman should vault up the rankings.
Duke is now 5-0 with bonus points in all of his victories — four pins and injury default.
The weight class is pretty open, but the defending champ, Nebraska’s Antrell Taylor, is back. Duke looks solid though, and is a favorite to take the throne from Taylor. The pair could face off in the Jan. 30 dual.
Should Duke accomplish this feat in March, he’ll be just the second Penn State wrestler to claim an NCAA title as a true freshman, joining Mark Hall.
History to repeat itself
Last year, Penn State became just the second team in NCAA history to have 10 All-Americans, joining Minnesota in 2001.
Once the Nittany Lions get Nagao and NCAA runner-up Josh Barr back, they will have their complete lineup in place.
The current eight starters all look like they’re slated to finish in the top eight of their weight classes. True freshman Marcus Blaze might have the toughest time as the 133-pound weight class is stacked, but his success so far collegiately and internationally has proven he can hang with the best.
If not now, when?
Penn State hasn’t lost a dual in nearly six years — 19-17 to Iowa on Jan. 31, 2020.
In fact, the Nittany Lions have now won 139 of their last 141 duals.
Sunday’s win was Penn State’s 74th straight dual victory, which is two shy of tying the all-time mark set by Oklahoma State from 1931 to 1956. The longest dual streak victory is 117 wins by NAIA’s Grand View University.
With the way that the Nittany Lions are scooping up talented commits, they could be well on their way to setting the longest dual streak victory.
No. 1 Penn State 36, No. 14 Lehigh 6
Sunday at University Park 125: No. 2 Luke Lilledahl, PSU, tech. fall Logan Wadle, 17-2 (3:21) 133: No. 11 Marcus Blaze, PSU, tech. fall Mason Ziegler, 19-4 (5:37) 141: Carter Bailey, L, dec. Cael Nasdeo, 5-1 149: No. 1 Shayne Van Ness, PSU, major dec. Owen Reinsel, 19-6 157: No. 15 PJ Duke, PSU, injury def. No. 10 Logan Rozynski, 5:46 165: No. 1 Mitchell Mesenbrink, PSU, major dec. No. 7 Max Brignola, 15-7 174: No. 1 Levi Haines, PSU, pinned Bekhruz Sadriddinov, 2:15 184: No. 4 Rocco Welsh, PSU, dec. No. 23 Rylan Rogers, 4-2 197: Connor Mirasola, PSU, dec. Remy Brancato, 8-3 285: No. 7 Nathan Taylor, L, dec. No. 10 Cole Mirasola, 7-2 Takedowns: L 5, PSU 26 Records: Lehigh (3-4), Penn State (3-0) Next match: No. 1 Penn State at Wyoming, Saturday, 8 p.m.
This story was originally published December 7, 2025 at 3:00 PM.
