Braeden Davis injury update and more Penn State wrestling notes

Penn State held 133-pound starter Braeden Davis out of the lineup last weekend. After a 30-8 win over Iowa that featured a Kurt McHenry loss as a fill-in for the sophomore, head coach Cael Sanderson did not make it sound like a long-term issue but rather one that required only a short amount of time off.

“Just a little banged up from a week ago,” Sanderson said. “[Kurt McHenry, who bumped up from 125 to fill in for Davis], he’s a little undersized, obviously, but he’s got a huge heart, and he’s a great wrestler. And, you know, he wanted that shot. So, we gave it to him.

“Obviously, that was a tall order with [competing against No. 2 Iowa Hawkeye Drake] Ayala, he’s obviously really good. But, yeah, Davis was just a little banged up from last week. So, we figured it would be in his best interest to kind of let him rest a little.”

Will Davis be back on the mat this weekend when the Lions kick off a double-dual stretch with Michigan Friday before hosting Maryland on Sunday?

“He might be [available], I’m not 100% sure on that,” Sanderson said. “I mean, that’s something we’ll decide as we get a little closer than that. But it wouldn’t surprise me if he’s ready to roll. We need to be ready to roll real soon. Or we might kind of let him relax a little bit longer. I mean, we’re fortunate to have other guys that kind of step in there and can make up for having somebody other lineup, and we got guys that are itching to wrestle. So, but, yeah, I don’t know the answer right now. We’ll find out later in the week.”

More Penn State wrestling notes

Here are some other highlights from Sanderson’s Monday availability. You can see his full comments on BWI’s YouTube page. Access it by clicking here.

On Josh Barr losing to No. 1 Stephen Buchanan

“I think it’s a big match,” Sanderson said. “You have the number one in the country that’s obviously very good, has a lot of experience. And, you know, he was in the match until the third there. I mean, think we were down two seconds of riding time, unfortunately. So some things we got to kind of tighten up. But, yeah, you know, I think, more than anything, with him, I think we just got to kind of reevaluate our training plan that we have with him, because he kind of was a little tired early, which is really, obviously, I don’t like. But yeah, he’s scrappy, and he’s getting better, and he’s a guy you can kind of see and feel the difference that he’s getting better every week. So we still got a lot of time for nationals, I think we’ve kind of helped him and he can help himself and kind of keep jumping levels.”

On the first double dual weekend of the season

“It’s unusual, as we talked about throughout the year, just the scheduling where we got Friday, Friday, Friday, and now we have a Friday, Sunday,” Sanderson said. “But I think these weekends are really good training for the national tournament conference where you have a multiple-day tournament. So, we look at it all as training. And obviously, Michigan’s one of the top programs in the country. So we’re looking forward to that match, another match in the Jordan Center, and then being able to kind of turn around and wrestle Maryland, who’s wrestling really well. I mean, they’ve done a really good job there, and they’ve been very competitive.”