TAKEAWAYS: Penn State wrestling caps perfect season with dominant finish

No. 1 Penn State wrestling took down Edinboro 55-0 on Sunday for the program’s 56^th consecutive dual win. The Nittany Lions dominated at every weight class, but the afternoon wasn’t without a potentially damaging injury to star wrestler Carter Starocci. What did we learn from Penn State’s big senior day win, and what questions remain as Cael Sanderson leads his squad into the postseason?

Carter Starocci injury shows risk-reward of wrestling

The Rec Hall crowd fell silent on Sunday when senior Carter Starocci injured his leg during his match against Joseph Arnold. The three-time National Champion ripped off his headgear and immediately reached for his right knee. He was then helped to the locker room by Cael Sanderson and the Penn State wrestling coaching staff, as he was unable to put any weight on his leg all the way back.

It is unclear just how serious the injury is at this point, but Cael Sanderson seemed optimistic in the post-dual press conference. He referenced how Starocci was a quick healer and previously won a national title despite wrestling through the entire tournament with a broken hand.

The senior’s injury proved how quickly things can go from good to bad in wrestling. Carter Starocci already had the tech fall wrapped up and was attempting to pin Arnold to finish off the dominant display. His leg got caught in a bad position, and the injury was the result.

That is just what happens sometimes in wrestling. It’s unfortunate that it occurred in a situation where the pin wasn’t necessary, and the dual was already decided. But in potentially his last bout in Rec Hall, Carter Starocci wasn’t going to change the mentality that has made him such a success during his Nittany Lion career.

Penn State wrestling displayed pure dominance

Penn State wrestling picked up 25 bonus points across all 10 weight classes on the afternoon. Four Nittany Lions picked up pins (Bartlett, Kasak, Haines, Kerkvliet), five picked up tech falls (Davis, Nagao, Starocci, Truax, Brooks) and Mesenbrink picked up a forfeit win.

There wasn’t a single match that made it to the third period. Penn State also didn’t give up a single takedown the entire dual. The win is tied for the biggest margin of victory for the Nittany Lions with the win against Buffalo in 2018.

This truly was perhaps the most dominant performance we have seen from Penn State wrestling in the Cael Sanderson era. The Nittany Lions got a minimum of a tech fall at every weight class and were about as flawless as could be.

Edinboro was overmatched from the start, and this was the result that was expected from a 2-11 team. As Cael Sanderson mentioned in his press conference afterward, it was the perfect dual to allow his wrestlers to work on things before the two-week layoff before the Big Ten Championships.

Rec Hall crowd showed out

We have seen it before with virtually every other team on campus: when bad games are on the schedule, people don’t show up. But that is the opposite of what happened in Rec Hall on Sunday. The crowd packed the historic building and filled the standing-room-only railing to watch a dual against a 2-11 Edinboro team who only had one wrestler with an above .500 record.

There are two takeaways one can have from the high attendance. The first is that when a team wins and is dominant, the Penn State faithful show up. We saw it a few years ago during the 2019-20 basketball season, when the Bryce Jordan Center was regularly seeing crowds of over 12,000 people for weekday Big Ten games because the team was ranked and playing well.

We have seen similar turnouts for football, ice hockey, and women’s volleyball. However, we don’t always see it for the poor non-conference matchups. That is where the second part comes in: the Penn State wrestling fanbase is just different from the others on campus.

People don’t just show up to a dual to watch Penn State win, but rather they show up for the love of the sport and to see exactly how each Nittany Lion picks up his victory. It was what makes wrestling so different from all of the other team sports on campus. Even in a 55-0 blowout, there are still intricacies of each match that keep fans locked in and excited.

A Penn State wrestling match at Rec Hall is one of the best atmospheres on campus. Sunday was just another chapter in the incredible story of both the building and the program.

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