PREVIEW: No. 1 Penn State wrestling heads to No. 6 Nebraska for B1G battle

On Friday night, Penn State wrestling will head to Lincoln to face No. 6/No. 4 Nebraska for the Nittany Lions’ second road dual of the season. The toughest test of the season to date, the Cornhuskers will present the deepest lineup Penn State has seen this year. 

Will Cael Sanderson and the Nittany Lions continue their historic start and return to Happy Valley with a massive road win?

Penn State vs. Nebraska preview

Penn State enters Friday’s dual 7-0 (1-0 Big Ten), coming off its most dominant win of the season – a 55-0 throttling of Michigan State last week in Rec Hall. Nebraska enters 6-1 (1-0) following a 21-13 victory over top-10 Minnesota last Saturday.

This is the second top-10 opponent Penn State wrestling will face this season, the first resulting in a 36-3 victory over No. 10 Lehigh in December. The Nittany Lions will be Nebraska’s third consecutive top-10 opponent. 

Penn State wrestling leads the all-time series 12-7-1. The Nittany Lions have won eight in a row against the Cornhuskers, most recently a 22-13 victory last season in Rec Hall. Penn State claimed a 20-18 victory when the two last met in Lincoln in 2020.

Both programs currently have all 10 wrestlers in their starting lineups ranked inside the top 25. This will be the first time this season that Cael Sanderson will lead the Nittany Lions against a team with this much top-end talent and overall depth.

Match to watch

© Chris Eutsler / Basic Blues Nation, 2025.

125: No. 12 Luke Lilledahl 10-0 (PSU) vs. No. 6 Caleb Smith 12-3 (NEB)

Three matches in this dual will feature wrestlers ranked inside the top six. Yet, the one matchup that intrigues me the most is at 125 pounds, featuring the only Penn State wrestler not inside the top five.

True freshman Luke Lilledahl entered the season unranked at the weight class. But he has been slowly climbing after a 10-0 start to the year, including a decisive 4-1 win over No. 14 Sheldon Seymour of Lehigh.

However, there is still much that we don’t know about Lilledahl. Certainly, everyone in the wrestling world knows about his potential. After all, he was the No. 1 overall recruit in the country for this freshman class. Yet, the biggest tests still remain on the star freshman’s schedule.

The first of those tests will come against No. 6 Caleb Smith in Lincoln on Friday night. Smith is off to an impressive 12-3 start, with his only losses to No. 30 Trever Anderson (Northern Iowa), No. 5 Eddie Ventresca (Virginia Tech), and No. 4 Troy Spratley (Oklahoma State). The only shocking loss out of that group was to Anderson, part of a surprising 24-9 dual upset for Northern Iowa over Nebraska.

This will be Lilledahl’s best chance to pick up a quality win and move up in the rankings before the Big Ten Championships. Smith is the highest-ranked Big Ten wrestler at 125 pounds behind No. 1 Matt Ramos of Purdue.

The only other two ranked wrestlers still ahead of Lilledahl in the conference are Dean Peterson (Rutgers) and Brendan McCrone (Ohio State). While both would be solid victories, neither can move the needle enough to vault the true freshman toward the top five nationally. So while this match may not be as flashy as some others on Friday, it will have major implications for both the Big Ten and NCAA Championships seedings down the road.

Projected Penn State wrestling lineups:

125: No. 12 Luke Lilledahl 10-0 (PSU) vs No. 6 Caleb Smith 12-3 (NEB)

133: No. 5 Braeden Davis 6-1 (PSU) vs No. 16 Jacob Van Dee 7-5 (NEB)

141: No. 3 Beau Bartlett 10-0 (PSU) vs No. 6 Brock Hardy 13-2 (NEB) 

149: No. 2 Shayne Van Ness 10-0 (PSU) vs No. 4 Ridge Lovett 10-1 (NEB)

157: No. 3 Tyler Kasak 10-0 vs No. 5 Antrell Taylor 14-1 (NEB) 

165: No. 1 Mitchell Mesenbrink 10-0 (PSU) vs No. 7 Bubba Wilson 10-3/Christopher Minto 13-1 (NEB)

174: No. 2 Levi Haines 9-1 (PSU) vs No. 15 Lenny Pinto 13-3 (NEB)

184: No. 1 Carter Starocci 10-0 (PSU) vs No. 17 Silas Allred 11-2 (NEB)

197: No. 4 Josh Barr 10-0 vs No. 22 Camden McDaniel 12-6 (NEB)

285: No. 2 Greg Kerkvliet 10-0 (PSU) vs No. 24 Harley Andrews 8-7 (NEB)

Penn State vs. Nebraska predictions:

125: No. 6 Caleb Smith (NEB) by decision

133: No. 5 Braeden Davis (PSU) by decision

141: No. 3 Beau Bartlett (PSU) by decision

149: No. 2 Shayne Van Ness (PSU) by decision

157: No. 5 Antrell Taylor (NEB) by decision

165: No. 1 Mitchell Mesenbrink (PSU) by tech fall

174: No. 2 Levi Haines (PSU) by major decision

184: No. 1 Carter Starocci (PSU) by fall

197: No. 4 Josh Barr (PSU) by tech fall

285: No. 1 Greg Kerkvliet (PSU) by pin

Final Score: No. 1 Penn State 35 – No. 4 Nebraska 6

This is the first dual of the season where I could see Penn State wrestling losing multiple matches and not be too surprised.

Based on the current InterMat rankings, the only match where the Nittany Lions will enter as an underdog is at 125 between No. 12 Luke Lilledahl and No. 6 Caleb Smith. I think this is where Lilledahl picks up his first loss of the season. He can beat Smith, but the Cornhusker is a veteran and will be wrestling in front of a home crowd.

Lilledahl has also wrestled lesser competition to Smith closer than expected. We have seen Cael Sanderson force his star freshmen wrestlers to perfect their fundamentals early in their careers before turning them loose. That could be what we are seeing with Lilledahl at this point in the season. We will find out exactly where the freshman falls in the 125-pound pecking order on Friday night.

There are four potential toss-up matches in this dual based solely on rankings: 125, 141, 149, and 157 pounds. I have the Nittany Lions and Cornhuskers splitting those duals, with Nebraska grabbing 125 (Smith) and 157 (Taylor) and Penn State getting 141 (Bartlett) and 149 (Van Ness).

The back end of the lineup leans heavily in Penn State’s favor, which is why there likely isn’t a path for Nebraska to win this dual. Even giving the Cornhuskers all four toss-up matches, the Nittany Lions would still win handily, as I see blowouts coming from 165 to heavyweight.

Friday will be an opportunity to see if this year’s lineup truly has an opportunity to break even more records at the NCAA Championships this spring. If Lilledahl pulls off an upset and all the other rankings hold strong, that would mean the Nittany Lions pick up another shutout victory. Amid the best start of the Cael Sanderson era, I don’t think anyone would be shocked to see Penn State wrestling rout a top-10 opponent in their own venue.

How to watch?

Date: January 17, 2025

Time: 9:00 p.m. ET

TV: BTN

Location: Lincoln, Nebraska

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