Penn State wrestling dominates the field in latest NCAA Tournament projections

Penn State wrestling has been the most dominant program of the last decade under head coach Cael Sanderson. This season, the Nittany Lions are once again the top team in the country, sitting at No. 1 in every ranking. After a dominant sweep of Michigan and Michigan State last weekend, the latest NCAA Tournament projections from InterMat have Penn State widening the gap between itself and the rest of the field.

Nittany Lions dominate new NCAA Tournament projections

InterMat releases individual wrestler rankings each week based on the results from the prior weekend. The organization also projects points in the NCAA Championship through its team tournament rankings. This takes into account where wrestlers are ranked and how far they are projected to go in the NCAA Tournament.

For example, since Penn State has four wrestlers ranked No. 1, the Nittany Lions would be projected national champions for those weight classes and claim the team points associated along the way. At the beginning of the season, the Nittany Lions already had a significant gap between itself and the rest of the field. Penn State wrestling hovered around the low 130s in team points, while the closest second-place team was in the mid-to-high 70s.

When No. 2 Shayne Van Ness went down with a season-ending injury and No. 2 Bernie Truax lost an early dual that dropped him out of the projected championship spot, Penn State dipped down around 10 points into the 120s. This doesn’t take into account all the possible bonus points the Nittany Lions could get within the tournament bracket, but it did put into question the possibility of catching the historic 170-point mark set by Iowa in 1997.

Penn State is pulling away from the field

Penn State wrestling dominated last weekend with a 27-9 victory over No. 5 Michigan on Friday night and a 35-0 shutout of Michigan State on Sunday.

More importantly, only Aaron Nagao dropped in the individual rankings this week, from No. 4 to No. 5. After successful weekends from the freshmen, Braeden Davis moved up from 14 to 4 at 125, and Mitchell Mesenbrink moved from 9 to 7 at 165.

This movement increased Penn State’s projected tournament points to 137 and widened its gap from No. 2 Missouri, currently projected at 71. The Nittany Lions are now on track to have nine of their 10 wrestlers become All-Americans by the season’s end, and many will have an opportunity to win national championships.

Now, how far Penn State wrestlers advance in the NCAA Tournament and the amount of bonus points they score will determine whether the 170-point mark is achievable. It would take a few of the freshmen making runs to the semifinals or finals and all the other favorites holding strong. It is certainly possible, and this latest projection shows the gap is about double between the Penn State wrestling program and everyone else.

Cael Sanderson probably doesn’t care about the points record and just wants to see as many of his guys win individual national titles as possible. But this may be the best Penn State wrestling team we have seen to date, and if there is a team to make NCAA history, it would be this one.

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