Penn State wrestling: Photos from the Ohio State match, final thoughts on Lions' win, Iowa losing
Penn State wrestling won eight of 10 matches on Friday night to top Ohio State 28-9 in front of a packed Rec Hall crowd. The No. 1 Nittany Lions were far from perfect but took care of business to win for the eighth time this season, the 52nd straight dual meet, and the 199th time since Cael Sanderson took over the program.
“They pushed us pretty dang good and we can go back and work on some things,” Sanderson said. “It’s easy to come away from a match and think you didn’t wrestle well but when you wrestle really good opponents sometimes that happens. We just need to make some adjustments and wrestle with a little more enthusiasm.”
Photos, video from the Penn State-Ohio State match
We start with a photo gallery. Check out our shots below. Above, you can watch the full post-match news conference. It featured Sanderson, Beau Bartlett, and Mitchell Mesenbrink.
Final thoughts from the Lions match with the Buckeyes
We’ll cover these in quick-hitting form:
–Is it time to worry about 133-pounder Aaron Nagao or 184-pounder Bernie Truax? The former dug himself a 9-2 hole and lost 13-7 to Nic Bouzakis. The latter was leading before being pinned by freshman Ryder Rogotzke in the second period. It feels like the fan base is now going to worry about both wrestlers’ chances to hit the All-American podium at NCAAs. As far as this space is concerned, it’s far too early to have that kind of mindset despite Friday night’s outcomes.
–Mitchell Mesenbrink is a joy to watch wrestle in person. The first-year Lion and 165-pound redshirt freshman is an energizer bunny who is ready to go at the opening whistle and has enough stamina to outlast most opponents. He beat Ohio State’s Bryce Hepner by decision, 10-4, and continues to roll under the tutelage of Casey Cunningham, Cael Sanderson, and co.
–It may not need to be pointed out, considering the final score was 12-0, but heavyweight Greg Kerkvliet’s win over Nick Feldman was an absolute masterclass by the Nittany Lion. He finished with a whopping 3:46 in riding time.
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Down goes Iowa
We wrap up here. If you tuned out after Penn State beat Ohio State, you may have missed that next week’s opponent for the Nittany Lions, Iowa, was upset by Michigan on Friday night. The No. 12 Wolverines blitzed the No. 2 Hawkeyes out of the gate. They won the first five matches and seven overall to win 24-11. Michigan scored rankings upsets at 125 pounds, where Michael DeAugstino beat Drake Ayala in tiebreaker 2-1, 141, where No. 19 Sergio Lemley all but pinned No. 1 Real Woods en route to a 14-2 triumph, and 157, where No. 12 Will Lewan stopped No. 2 Jared Franek in a tiebreaker.
It was, quite simply, an utter and unexpected dominating win for Michigan. Iowa must quickly regroup with the No. 1 Nittany Lions rolling into town next Friday for a 9 p.m. ET match on the Big Ten Network.
