Penn State wrestling second half primer: Lineup decisions, matches to watch and more

Penn State wrestling is ready to roll into the second half of the 2023-2024 season. That’s a misnomer of sorts for this particular year, as the team will have more matches moving forward than it already has. But, the split comes between the 2023 portion of the schedule and the 2024 portion, which starts Friday night at Oregon State.

“Yeah, it’s a little different this year, just being an Olympic year, and having several guys trying to make the [U.S. National] team.” Lions coach Cael Sanderson told reporters on Tuesday. “We had to factor that in and try to give our guys had best chance to be successful. But we’re excited to compete and get going here. Oregon State will be a great match and then we’ll jump into the Big Ten schedule ready to roll.”

Learn everything you need to know to prepare for the Lions’ latest title pursuit below.

1. The first half went well, but it wasn’t perfect

Sanderson’s side entered the 2023-2024 season as the top-ranked team in the country. It, of course, aims to defend its Big Ten and NCAA titles from last year. There are many familiar faces in the lineup, but the team needed replacements for Roman Bravo-Young at 133, Max Dean at 197, and wanted to add depth elsewhere. So, it turned to the transfer portal.

Former Minnesota All-American Aaron Nagao transferred in to fill RBY’s void at 133 pounds. Former Wisconsin prep star Mitchell Mesenbrink came on board at 165 via the portal after a year at Cal Baptist, which allowed last year’s starter at that weight, Alex Facundo, to take an Olympic redshirt and focus on freestyle. Then, in the upper weights, former Cal Poly All-American Bernie Truax IV joined Penn State. He took the 184-pound spot, which allowed multi-time national champ Aaron Brooks to move into Dean’s vacated 197-pound spot.

All of the above was known preseason. It could not be known, however, that 2023 NCAA All-American Shayne Van Ness would wrestle only a few matches before suffering a season-ending injury. That throws the 149-pound situation into flux. But, as we’ll cover below, the program has a plan. It should also be noted that heavyweight Greg Kervliet has been dealing with a knee issue but there are not expected to be any long-term, and perhaps not even short-term, ramifications from that after the holiday break.

Finally, as for the 2023 matches themselves, Penn State was 2-0 in dual meets. If you think that sounds light, it is. But, the team had multiple wrestlers in the NWCA All-Star Class exhibition at Rec Hall. And, many went to Senior Nationals in December with an eye on the Olympic team. So, the Lions scaled their early dual meet schedule back.

2. Lineup decisions remain

Penn State entered the 2023-2024 season like it has many other ones in the Sanderson era: The starting lineup was mostly set. But, it wasn’t completely locked in.

The Lions had work to do at 125 pounds. Robbie Howard, a program veteran who has missed two straight seasons due to injury, looked ready to finally take the starting spot back. But, he struggled out of the gate. Freshman Braeden Davis, on the other hand, flourished. The four-time Michigan State champ is 8-0 to start his college career and looks set to handle the position moving forward.

Then, there is the 149-pound spot to clean up. That was unexpected, of course. Penn State will likely rotate freshman Tyler Kasak and junior David Evans in that spot for now to figure out which is the right one to roll with to get ready for nationals.

“Kasak has already wrestled for us and both Evans and Kasak have competed really well up to this point,” Sanderson said. “They’re probably more naturally 49 pounders than 41 pounders, so I don’t think weight will be an issue for them; they’ll be ready to wrestle.”

Otherwise, the Penn State wrestling lineup looks like this (rankings courtesy of InterMat):

125: Braeden Davis

133: No. 4 Aaron Nagao

141: No. 2 Beau Bartlett

149: Tyler Kasak OR David Evans

157: No. 1 Levi Haines

165: No. 14 Mitchell Mesenbrink

174: No. 1 Carter Starocci

184: No. 2 Bernie Truax

197: No. 1 Aaron Brooks

285: No. 1 Greg Kerkvliet

3. Big matches await

As we noted above, the fact that Penn State had so few dual meets in December means it will have many in January and February. That starts with Friday’s trip to Corvallis to meet Oregon State at 8 p.m. on PAC 12 Network Oregon. PSU owns a 3-0 all-time lead in the series.

Top second half dual meets for the Lions include a battle at No. 10 Michigan on Jan. 19 (6 p.m., BTN), a visit from No. 6 Ohio State on Feb. 2 (6:30 p.m., BTN), a dual meet at No. 2 Iowa on Feb. 9 (9 p.m., BTN), and the Bryce Jordan Center match with No. 14 Rutgers on Feb. 12 (7 p.m., BTN).

The full schedule will help the Lions prepare for an attempt at a repeat. Blue-White Illustrated will cover it all inside The Wrestling Room forum.