Penn State wrestling starter expected to sit out Black Knight Invitational following injury

Penn State wrestling travels to West Point, New York, for the Black Knight Invitational on Sunday, but 133-pound starter Braeden Davis does not seem to be among those Nittany Lions who will be taking the mat. Davis appears to have been scratched from the tournament as of Friday, five days removed from sustaining a lower-body injury in the Nittany Lions’ season opener.

The sophomore wrestler was not on the preseeds list released by FloWrestling on Friday morning. Instead, junior Gary Steen was seeded No. 3 at 133 pounds, while Kyison Garcia and Timothy Levine went unseeded. However, participants are not finalized until weigh-ins are completed on Sunday morning.

Braeden Davis was injured early last Sunday when he faced Drexel’s Kyle Watterman. However, he remained in the match and narrowly avoided the upset in a 7-5 win.

“He doesn’t have, like, a long-term, any kind of injury like that,” Cael Sanderson said of Davis this week. “But just determining whether it makes sense [to wrestle him]. Each day is a day that he’s getting better. So we’ll see where we’re at by the time it’s time to leave.”

Resting Davis would give him more time to recover around the Thanksgiving holiday. Following the Black Knight Invitational, Penn State wrestling will not return to action until it heads to Allentown’s PPL Center to battle Lehigh on December 8.

“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,” Cael Sanderson said in his postgame press conference last Sunday. “But it’s early November. So, I don’t think they’ve given him a full look yet. So, we’ll figure it out.”

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