TAKEAWAYS: Penn State wrestling sets new program record with dominant outing at the Journeymen

Penn State wrestling continued its undefeated season with an absolutely dominating 3-0 performance at the Journeymen Collegiate Duals in Nashville on Sunday. The Nittany Lions earned two ranked wins, outscoring Binghamton, No. 15/16 Little Rock, and No. 8/15 Missouri by a combined 137-3 score.

What are we taking away from the Nittany Lions’ final outing of 2024?

A New Penn State wrestling record

Penn State wrestling has now won 62 consecutive duals after its three victories on Sunday evening, breaking the previous school record of 60 set between 2015 and 2019.

That streak was snapped with a 19-18 loss at Arizona State in November 2019. Two months later, the Nittany Lions fell to Iowa 19-17 in Carver-Hawkeye Area. That loss on January 31, 2020, nearly four years and 11 months ago, was the last time a Cael Sanderson team suffered a dual defeat.

It truly is incredible to think about just how much of a machine the Penn State wrestling program has become under Sanderson. The Nittany Lions won six duals between that pair of losses in the 2019-20 season, meaning the program has won 128 of 130 matches over the last decade. That’s good enough for a 98.5% win percentage in the last decade.

Now, the count is on to the all-time record, held by Oklahoma State at 76 consecutive wins. The milestone is officially within striking distance for Sanderson and the Nittany Lions. However, with only nine duals left this season, the record will have to wait until next year. But for now, each win will extend the program record by one more match.

Penn State wrestling bulldozes Binghamton 52-0

Sanderson sent out his full lineup in the first match of the day, overwhelming Binghamton from start to finish as a result.

The Bearcats had just two wrestlers ranked heading into the dual. At 125 pounds, No. 12 Luke Lilledahl (PSU) picked up a 19-4 tech fall at the 5:37 mark to defeat No. 33 Carson Wagner (BING) to open the dual with a 5-0 lead. The other ranked matchup was at 184, where No. 1 Carter Starocci (PSU) pinned No. 23 Will Ebert (BING) at the 5:55 mark.

The closest bout of the dual was a 6-0 decision win for No. 10 Braeden Davis (PSU) over Micah Roes (BING) at 133 pounds. Penn State finished the dual with four falls, one forfeit, and three tech falls.

Lions blank Little Rock 44-0

The second dual of the day was a slight step up in competition with five ranked matches against No. 15/16 Little Rock. Penn State wrestlers would have been underdogs with two of the five bouts based on the latest InterMat rankings. No. 10 Braeden Davis (PSU) was the first to pull off an upset with a 1-0 decision over No. 5 Nassir Bailey (LR). It was one of the more anticipated matches of the weekend and will help establish Davis as a true contender at 133 pounds moving forward.

The other big win was freshman phenom No. 7 Josh Barr (PSU), who defeated No. 5 Stephen Little (LR) with a 4-1 decision in a sudden victory. Barr will once again climb in the rankings after starting at No. 23 in the preseason InterMat rankings. He’s already put himself in contention for an All-American finish come March. Still, it may be time to thrust the redshirt freshman into National Championship contention after another strong performance over a top-ranked opponent.

Other ranked wins in this dual included No. 2 Shayne Van Ness (PSU) pinning No. 16 Jordan Williams (LR) at 4:39, No. 4 Tyler Kasak (PSU) winning on a 4-2 decision over No. 20 Matty Bianchi (LR), and No. 1 Mitchell Mesenbrink (PSU) picking up a 17-1 tech fall over No. 21 Joey Bianchi (LR) at the 5:27 mark.

National Champion suffers setback during 41-3 rout of No. 8/15 Missouri

No. 8/15 Missouri was the only team that picked up a match win over top-ranked Penn State all day. That came in one of the most highly anticipated matches of the weekend, where No. 1 Keegan O’Toole (MIZZOU) defeated No. 2 Levi Haines (PSU) 4-1 in sudden victory.

It was a tight battle throughout. Controversially, Haines had an opportunity to get a takedown but was never awarded the points. But as a result of the win result, O’Toole puts himself in the driver’s seat to get the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Championships this spring. The race at 174 pounds seems to be coming down to O’Toole, Haines,  and Dean Hamiti (OK ST).

Getting the No. 1 seed would mean avoiding one of the other big wrestlers in the semifinals. There is still a lot of time left for potential upsets, but this match definitely impacted the postseason bracket.

Penn State wrestling took the other two ranked matches on the dual. Beau Bartlett (PSU) defeated No. 16 Josh Edmond (MIZZOU) in sudden victory 4-1. No. 1 Carter Starocci (PSU) defeated No. 10 Colton Hawks (MIZZOU) by a 10-1 major decision. The Nittany Lions picked up two falls, one forfeit, and a tech fall in the dual.

A dominant weekend from the Blue and White

As a whole, Cael Sanderson’s squad won 29 of 30 matches: a truly insane statistic and was almost perfect if Levi Haines had been able to take down Keegan O’Toole.

We say it every year, but this year’s team may be better than the record-breaking squad last season. Penn State broke the points record (172.5) and winning margin (100) at the NCAA Championships. The winning margin most likely won’t happen this season, with both Iowa and Oklahoma State getting stronger.

However, the Nittany Lions are trending towards potentially being the second program in history (Minnesota) to have 10 All-Americans. Whether Penn State will get six wrestlers to the Finals with four finishing on top of the podium still remains uncertain, but it is hard to put anything past this program at this point.

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