Penn State wrestling notes: A Tyler Kasak update, thoughts on the program's 1,000th dual win, more

While he likely would argue the rest of this sentence, no individual has meant more to the Penn State wrestling program than Cael Sanderson. The former four-time NCAA champ and Olympic gold medalist came to State College before his fourth season as a head coach. Since, he has guided the Nittany Lions to 200 dual meet victories and 10 NCAA team titles while also leading 34 individuals to NCAA titles in addition to 83 All-Americans. Speaking Tuesday during his weekly media availability, Sanderson reflected on another impressive number he had a role in: The program’s 1,000 all-time dual meet wins, the most recent of which was achieved back on Monday in a big win over Rutgers.

“Penn State wrestling is such a special thing,” Sanderson said, per PennLive. We knew coming in here that was one of the major draws. Just the people and the sincerity and love of the program. And Coach [Rich] Lorenzo is as good as human beings get. Just the salt of the earth, hard-working, and he’s a big part of the reason the program has the support that it has is just because of the great job he did and the relationships that he built, and just the love of the sport that he created.

“We want to try to just be able to add what little bit we can to what, what he did, obviously, [John] Fritz, Coach [Troy] Sunderland, and everyone before him. But, it means a lot to us.”

An update on Penn State freshman Tyler Kasak

Many Penn State wrestling fans expressed concern back on Monday after freshman Tyler Kasak hit his head on a mat return by Rutgers’ Michael Cetta in the Nittany Lions’ eventual win at 149 pounds. On Tuesday, Sanderson said “he’ll be fine.”

“He was definitely concerned coming off the mat,” Sanderson said. “Our doctors saw him right away. Dr. [Wayne] Sebastianelli was there, and Dan Monthley, you don’t compare people, but there’s not a better trainer in the country. So yeah, he’ll be fine. I think he was definitely concerned thinking that he did something more than he did, thankfully.”

He said it

Sanderson, on how the program avoids complacency at it reaches new heights and milestones year after year:

“That’s the big challenge in life, I guess, right? You see the patterns, and the ups and the downs, and when pressure is on, and when it’s off. I think for, for me, personally, I don’t have any problem with that. Because I don’t focus on those things. I’m not worried about, of course, I hate losing. I want to be the best team, I want to think that our best teams are always coming as a coach and as a program. But I’m thinking more about performance. I’m not looking back at these matches, like, ‘oh, well, we won this one by a point. That’s great.’ We’re looking at, like, how can our kids get better? How can we get their minds to where they can wrestle a little bit more freely, or whatever?

“We’re not worried about the wins and the losses, which I think that’s a higher standard. And you can avoid the ups and the downs that you you’re going to get if you’re thinking about judging your success off of wins and losses. There’s a higher standard. And that’s what we try to focus on. I know that’s what we focus on as a staff. We’re just consistent. Whether we win the Nationals or not, we’ll be in here Monday at 1:30 for the NLWC. It’s a heck of a lot more fun to win. So, anything we can do to do that, we’ll do the work.”