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Collegiate Wrestling Duals schedule unveiled; who will Penn State wrestle in Florida next month?

Greg Pickelby:Greg Pickel•11/23/21•

GregPickel

Carter Starocci
Penn State wrestler Carter Starocci, seen here before the Army match, and his teammates will head to the Collegiate Wrestling Duals next month. (Photo by Steve Manuel)

Penn State now knows its first two opponents at the Collegiate Wrestling Duals.

The Nittany Lions will take on the University of Northern Iowa at 11 a.m. on Dec. 20 in Niceville, Fla. Head coach Cael Sanderson’s team will then wrestle Cornell at 1 p.m.

A member of the tournament’s ‘blue pool’, Penn State will wrestle one match on Dec. 21 depending on how it performs during the event’s first day. It would either wrestle Hofstra, Virginia Tech, or Arizona State based on who wins on the other side of the pool’s bracket. The Tuesday match could be as early as 1 p.m. ET or as late as 7 p.m. ET.

Rofkin will live stream the event from Northwest Florida State College. It is being put on by Journeymen Wrestling, which also hosted Penn State for its season-opening tournament at the Spooky Nook Sports Complex in Manheim earlier this month.

“Just looking for matches, and it’s fun to kind of change things up a little bit and see some new faces,” Sanderson said at team media day earlier this year.

“I know we’re going to wrestle some really marquee dual meets in Florida, and that’s something that we’re looking forward to. We try to get some kind of a big event that the student-athletes look forward to around that Christmas time, and this makes a lot of sense. So, we’re excited to go give it a shot.”

Full Collegiate Wrestling Duals schedule

Seven of Intermat’s top-15 dual teams will be on hand out of 12. total. They are split into two pools, and there is no overall championship match. This is presumably to avoid possibly setting up a match that either already has happened or will take place later this year.

Dec. 20

Red pool (Mat 1/Mat 2)

9 a.m.: The University of Northern Iowa vs. Cornell / Hofstra vs. Virginia Tech

11 a.m.: The University of Northern Iowa vs. Penn State / Hofstra vs. Arizona State

1 p.m. Cornell vs. Penn State / Virginia Tech vs. Arizona State

Blue pool (Mat 1 / Mat 2)

3 p.m.: Lehigh vs. Central Michigan / Binghamton vs. Missouri

5 p.m.: Iowa vs. Central Michigan / Binghamton vs. N.C. State

7 p.m.: Iowa vs. Lehigh / Missouri vs. N.C. State

Dec. 21

1 p.m.: Fifth place matches in both pools

3 p.m.: Third place matches in both pools

5 p.m.: Championship match in red pool

7 p.m.: Championship match in blue pool

Up next for Penn State

Penn State does not compete this week. It returns to action next Friday, Dec. 3 at the University of Pennsylvania before hosting Lehigh on Dec. 5 at Rec Hall.

The Lions are 3-0, and most recently won opposite Army last week.

“We wrestled fine,” Sanderson said after the win over the Black Knights, according to the Centre Daily Times. “I don’t think we wrestled out of our minds or anything, but Army came in and they have some of the toughest people on the planet there in that institution and on that wrestling team, so I think they did a nice job and they wrestled hard and were in good shape — strong kids. But I think we’ve just got to keep getting better as we press forward through the season. I think the guys for the most part wrestled well.

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