History was made in a couple of different ways on Friday night for Penn State’s wrestling team inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, Iowa.
With the Nittany Lions cruising past Iowa, 29-6, it gave coach Cael Sanderson his 200th career win at the helm of the program. It was the largest margin of victory they’ve had over the Hawkeyes, eclipsing the previous mark of 15 points.
The win also was the program’s 999th, which means they could get win No. 1,000 inside the Bryce Jordan Center on Monday night against Rutgers.
It’s only the second time that Penn State has won three straight against Iowa. The last time was from 1986-1988.
“Our staff has been together the whole time, that’s cool. Obviously, we are happy about that, that stuff gets brought to my attention by fans. We are just trying to get better every match,” Sanderson said to media after the dual. “Iowa does a great job of preparing for your guys. They always do a really good job of showing what you need to work on.”
The Nittany Lions are 119-2 in their last 121 duals, and has a current dual winning streak of 53.
In a change from most of the year, things didn’t start off with a win at 125 pounds.
The Hawkeyes’ No. 7 Drake Ayala snapped off a quick takedown on Braeden Davis with a nice shrug by. Davis quickly escaped, but was unable to keep his record unblemished as Ayala came away with a 4-2 win.
Aaron Nagao got the Nittany Lions on the board with a dominant 11-0 win over No. 20 Cullen Schriever. Nagao had a takedown in the first and third periods, but he also added three nearfall points in the third period.
Things kept rolling after Nagao’s match as Beau Bartlett defended his No. 1 ranking for the first time against No. 2 Real Woods. Bartlett was able to score the first points of the bout with a takedown in the first period, which set the tone.
It was 3-2 heading into the third period period, but Bartlett tacked on another takedown with 3 seconds left for a 7-2 win. He was able to avenge a loss to Woods, who beat him 4-1 in the Bryce Jordan Center dual last year.
“I love it. After last weekend, when they moved me up to the No. 1 ranking, I pushed that aside because I had not got this win yet,” Bartlett said after the dual. “I don’t care who he loses to or how things happened. I wanted this (win). I wanted to get a win over somebody that is ranked higher than me. Being ranked No. 2 all year, it doesn’t get to happen too often. I think everything is going in the right direction.”
Penn State didn’t get away easily though — at least not right away.
No. 12 Caleb Rathjen handed Tyler Kasak his first loss of the season from someone outside of the program. Rathjen jumped out to a 6-2 lead, but Kasak battled his way back to tie the bout, 8-8, which forced sudden victory.
The Iowa wrestler got a winning takedown 53 seconds in to get the dual to 7-6.
“We felt pretty good. You just never know. Anything can happen, there is a lot going on in these kids’ lives,” Sanderson said. “You’re in somebody else’s gym, which is one of the more successful athletic teams in all of college sports. You take it one at a time, and keep trying to wrestle well.”
It was the last win for the Hawkeyes on the night, as Penn State went on to win the six remaining bouts.
Levi Haines dominated with a 12-0 major decision over No. 5 Jared Franek. Haines had a takedown in each period, and had 3 minutes, 32 seconds in riding time.
Mitchell Mesenbrink opened up the second half of the dual by snapping off two first-period takedowns on No. 6 Michael Caliendo. Mesenbrink added one more and earned a 12-6 win.
Carter Starocci got a top-10 win over No. 7 Patrick Kennedy. Starocci had a pair of takedowns in the first and second periods, which helped propel him to a 13-5 victory.
Bernie Truax bounced back after being put on his back last Friday against Ohio State with a dominant 8-0 major decision over Aiden Riggins. His victory sealed the dual win for his team as it was 22-6 with two bouts left.
Aaron Brooks and No. 11 Zach Glazier squared off in a battle of unbeaten wrestlers. There was no scoring until the second period with Brooks getting an escape and a takedown.
He had riding time for another point, and picked up a 5-1 win. It was the first win for Brooks in which he didn’t score bonus points.
Greg Kerkvliet finished things off by racking up a 9-1 major decision over two-sport athlete Ben Kueter. Kerkvliet had a pair of takedowns but also had 3:49 in riding time.
“We did a good job of managing the environment. Carver is always very loud. We had flamethrower machines next to our bench,” Bartlett said with a laugh. “Periodically, it got really hot. It might be a safety hazard, but I don’t know. We did a good job of managing it, and wrestling our match. For guys that didn’t get the outcome they wanted, it was a great learning experience because this is a great place to wrestle.”
No. 1 Penn State 29, No. 3 Iowa 6
Friday at Iowa City, Iowa
125: No. 7 Drake Ayala, I, dec. No. 2 Braeden Davis, 4-2
133: No. 6 Aaron Nagao, PSU, major dec. No. 20 Cullan Schriever, 11-0
141: No. 1 Beau Bartlett, PSU, dec. No. 2 Real Woods, 7-2
149: No. 12 Caleb Rathjen, I, dec. No. 10 Tyler Kasak, 11-8 (SV)
157: No. 1 Levi Haines, PSU, major dec. No. 5 Jared Franek, 12-0
165: No. 7 Mitchell Mesenbrink, PSU, dec. No. 6 Michael Caliendo, 12-6
174: No. 1 Carter Starocci, PSU, major dec. No. 7 Patrick Kennedy, 13-5
184: No. 6 Bernie Truax, PSU, major dec. Aiden Riggins, 8-0
197: No. 1 Aaron Brooks, PSU, dec. No. 11 Zach Glazier, 5-1
285: No. 1 Greg Kerkvliet, PSU, major dec. Ben Kueter, 9-1
Takedowns: PSU 21, Iowa 5
Records: Penn State (9-0, 6-0 Big Ten), Iowa (10-2, 5-2)
Next match: Rutgers at Penn State, 7 p.m., Monday
