Penn State wrestling: 3 takeaways from Big Ten tournament session one

Penn State has seven wrestlers alive in the championship bracket at the Big Ten championships. The Nittany Lions earned some bonus points in the team race, too, during a mostly successful first session on Saturday inside of the Crisler Center in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Here’s what we learned.

1. Three Lions have setbacks to learn from

Penn State was never guaranteed to place more than seven wrestlers in the semifinals. In fact, based on the seeding, its maximum number was eight. But, they didn’t hit that figure.

Gary Steen, the 11 seed at 125 pounds, was dominated by Maryland’s Braxton Brown 14-0 in what could only be described as a disappointing performance after he lost to the Terp by just a 1-0 decision earlier this year. he will need to win his first consolation bracket bout, which will be opposite No. 9 seed Jack Medley of Michigan, to keep his hopes of reaching the NCAA Tournament alive.

Later, at 149 pounds, No. 5 Shayne Van Ness struggled to get his offense going in a 4-2 decision loss to Iowa four-seed Max Murin, who he lost to 4-1 earlier this year. ‘SVN’ will have to be more aggressive in the consolation bracket later tonight. And, the same can be said about 165-pound redshirt freshman Alex Facundo. The fourth-seeded Penn State wrestler fell by decision, 3-1, to five-seed Carson Kharchla of Ohio State. Neither young Nittany Lion let it fly enough to leave their quarterfinal match victorious. We won’t expect that to happen again, however.

2. Seven Penn State wrestlers can punch their finals ticket tonight

Other than those three losses, Penn State glided through the first session. The seven wrestlers with byes all won their quarterfinal matches.

Roman Bravo-Young beat Brody Teske of Iowa by major decision, 13-2, at 133 pounds. At 141, Beau Bartlett scored a 4-2 decision over Michigan’s Cole Mattin. Levi Haines become a first-time Big Ten semifinalist at 157 pounds by beating Indiana’s Derek Gilcher 6-0. Carter Starocci returns to the 174-pound semis after beating Northwestern’s Troy Fisher by major decision, 10-2. At 184 pounds, Aaron Brooks dominated Brian Soldano of Rutgers to score a technical fall by an 18-2 count in 5:57. Max Dean won 1-0 over Minnesota’s Alex Foy at 197. And, finally, Greg Kerkvliet amassed a massive 5:55 in riding time while handily beating Ohio State’s Tate Orndorff 9-1.

What did we learn? This group is dominate, just as we knew all along. Sure, more bonus points could have been accrued. But, the ones earned are nothing to sneeze at.

3. Great semifinal bouts are set, and the team race is on

The full next match schedule is below. Which one are you most excited for?

To us, Beau Barlett vs. Brock Hardy at 141 is going to be a wonderful match that can showcase where the Penn State junior truly is after a strong regular season. He is the seeding favorite. Now, he must earn a win. After that one, another rematch between Greg Kerkvliet and Iowa’s Tony Cassioppi promises to be a thriller. And, we’ll of course be watching closely to see if Levi Haines can punch his first finals ticket by beating three-seed Kendall Coleman of Purdue.

There were some upsets during this season. But, by and large, things went as expected, both for Penn State and other conference wrestlers.

As for the team race, Iowa and Penn State are tied with 63.5 points a piece after session one. But, the Lions have one more semifinalist than the Hawkeyes do.

Penn State semifinal/consolation bracket matches

125 pounds: No. 10 Gary Steen, Penn State vs. No. 9 Jack Medley, Michigan (consolation bracket)

133 pounds: No. 1 Roman Bravo-Young, Penn State vs. No. 5 Dylan Ragusin, Michigan

141 pounds: No. 2 Beau Bartlett, PSU vs. No. 3 Brock Hardy, Nebraska

149 pounds: No. 5 Shayne Van Ness, Penn State vs. winner of No. 14 Jaden Reynolds, Purdue vs. No. 11 Dayne Morton, Nebraska (Consolation)

157 pounds: No. 2 Levi Haines, PSU vs. No. 3 Kendall Coleman, Purdue

165 pounds: No. 4 Alex Facundo, Penn State vs. winner of No. 14 John Best, Maryland vs. No. 11 Nick South, Indiana

174 pounds: No. 1 Carter Starocci, PSU vs. No. 4 Bailee O’Reilly, Minnesota

184 pounds: No. 1 Aaron Brooks, Penn State vs. No. 4 Matt Finesilver, Michigan

197 pounds: No. 1 Max Dean, PSU vs. No. 5 Jacob Warner, Iowa

285 pounds: No. 1 Greg Kerkvliet, Penn State vs. No. 3 Tony Cassioppi, Iowa