TAKEAWAYS: Penn State wrestling reaches dual streak milestone with Ohio State win

Penn State wrestling extended its dual win streak to 69 straight after a hard-fought 27-13 victory over No. 8 Ohio State in Columbus Friday night. With the win, the Nittany Lions tied Oklahoma State and Iowa for the second-longest win streak in NCAA Division I history.

The Nittany Lions took home seven of the ten matches against the Buckeyes. But several wrestlers were put to the test, with the team only coming away with bonus points in three matches. What should we take away from perhaps the most competitive dual that Penn State has had all season?

Difficult night for the Nittany Lions’ true freshman

The dual started on a shocking note, with No. 7 Luke Lilledahl getting thrown to his back in the second period. The true freshman was pinned for the first time in his college career by No. 21 Brendan McCrone.

Lilledahl actually led 6-2 after the first period and was close to picking up a third takedown at the time of the pin. Only his second defeat of the season, the loss showed that while Lilledahl is talented, he still has growing pains as his true freshman season comes to a close. Lilledahl’s seeding at the Big Ten and NCAA Championships will likely suffer due to the loss. However, there is still potential for him to compete for a national title.

Cael Sanderson inserted a pair of other true freshman into the Penn State lineup on Friday night, both of whom likewise suffered disappointing outcomes.

Former top 10 prospect Joe Sealey made his Penn State wrestling debut at 157 in place of Tyler Kasak, who is still recovering from his head injury last weekend against Maryland. Sealey couldn’t get anything going offensively against Brandon Cannon, who improved to 14-2 on the season and 24-4 in his career.

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Cannon dominated the dual, coming away with a 10-1 major decision. While it was somewhat alarming how little offense Sealey could produce, going into a road environment is always tough, let alone for your first college start. Cael Sanderson has a way of turning challenging losses into learning experiences. We’ll have to see how he uses Friday night for the young Nittany Lion.

Cole Mirasola wrestled his seventh match of the season at 285, falling 10-3 to No. 9 Nick Feldman. Unlike Sealey, there was more reason for optimism while evaluating Mirasola. He almost had a takedown to end the first period, along with several other shots that Feldman could counter.

Mirasola showed his raw talent but just couldn’t get the job done against an All-American wrestler. Still, he showed enough promise to give Penn State wrestling fans comfort in their future heavyweight starter.

Beau Bartlett gets his revenge

© Reese Strickland-Imagn Images

Entering Friday, Jesse Mendez led the all-time series against Beau Bartlett 3-1. After picking up a victory in last year’s regular season meeting, the Buckeye star won the next three duals between the two, including in the Big Ten and NCAA Finals.

While every dual was decided by one score, it felt like Bartlett may have been struggling to keep pace with Mendez’s career progression. The talent has always been there for the Penn State senior to win a national title, but Mendez has proved to be a big hurdle when the lights were the brightest.

That changed on Friday night, as Bartlett was propelled by a first-period takedown to a 4-2 victory. While a big win for Bartlett, it won’t matter much if he can’t repeat the performance in the postseason. At the very least, Bartlett proved that Mendez doesn’t always have his number, and future matchups between them should truly be considered tossups.

In the short term, this win should allow Bartlett to lock up the No. 1 seed in the Big Ten Tournament. If he wins in Evanston next month, then the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Championships should also be secured. Earning the top spot at Nationals would be massive because it would allow Bartlett to avoid Andrew Alirez in the projected Semifinals in what is shaping up to be a three-way race for the 141-pound NCAA title.

Penn State wrestling challenged throughout the lineup

This dual was by far the most that Penn State has been challenged this season. It started at 125 with Lilledahl’s pin but continued at the next three weights, all decided by one score.

In addition to Bartlett’s upset, Braeden Davis had an impressive defensive performance to hold on for the 8-5 win, and Shayne Van Ness used a late third-period takedown to beat Dylan D’Emilio by a 4-2 decision.

At 174, Levi Haines was taken down for the second time this season. He also needed a late score to escape with a 6-4 win over Carson Kharchla.

The dual showed that even the most dominant lineup in the country can be vulnerable. The Nittany Lions won seven of ten matches and likely would have won more if Tyler Kasak and Greg Kerkvliet had wrestled. However, anything can happen in this sport, and nobody is invincible—except perhaps Mitchell Mesenbrink, who once again logged another tech fall.

Seeing how some of these wrestlers do in the NCAA Tournament will be interesting. We should expect to see several rematches in the National Quarterfinals or Semifinals based on rankings. Given how much they were pushed, expect Cael Sanderson to use the hard test to prepare his wrestlers even more for the upcoming postseason.

The Nittany Lions’ weekend isn’t over yet, as Penn State wrestling travels to Champaign on Sunday for a 2 p.m. dual with No. 13 Illinois.

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