Penn State wrestling: Braeden Davis looks to improve ranking after dropping out of top 5

Penn State wrestling extended its dual win streak to 64 against Nebraska in a dominant 31-7 victory. The Nittany Lions won eight out of the ten bouts, but not everyone had the best performance. One of those two losses was 133-pounder No. 5 Braeden Davis falling to Nebraska’s No. 16 Jacob Van Dee. The loss was the second of the season for Davis. As a result, the latest InterMat rankings dropped him to No. 7 heading into this Friday’s dual at Rutgers.

This is the second time in as many duals Davis has lost to a Nebraska wrestler. Last year, he fell 11-3 via major decision for his second and final loss of the regular season.

The beginning of last week’s match looked very promising. Davis got an early shot at Van Dee and appeared to be heading toward a 3-0 lead. However, the match unraveled for Davis over the next few seconds. Van Dee was able to scramble and avoid the takedown, countering with one of his own. He not only got the three points but also put Davis on his back for an additional four points.

It was very close to being a fall early in that first period, but Davis fought back with a takedown of his own to make it 7-4. But ultimately Van Dee took a 9-5 lead heading into the second period.

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It just seemed like Davis could not get anything going through the remainder of the dual. In the end, an attempted Davis throw, which Van Dee countered, extended the lead to six and effectively ended the match. Perhaps the move was a bit desperate with 1:10 still remaining.

It was a bad loss for Davis, plain and simple. The sophomore was considered a potential national title contender after his upset over then-top five Nasir Bailey at the Journeymen Duals. Jacob Van Dee was 6-5 on the season and ranked No. 16 for a reason. Anything can happen in wrestling; sometimes, you can just get caught on an off night.

Now Braeden Davis will have to pick up some tough wins down the stretch. It will start Friday against No. 9 Dylan Shawver of Rutgers, who recently moved into the top 10 after an impressive 13-3 start to the season. Other opponents in the next few weeks will include No. 3 Drake Ayala (Iowa) and No. 10 Nic Bouzakis (Ohio State). Ultimately, Davis will have plenty of opportunity to improve his resume and projected Big Ten and NCAA seeding in the coming weeks.

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