Penn State wrestling show: Full Olympics preview; Brooks and RBY bracket breakdown
A new episode of the Blue-White Illustrated Penn State wrestling show is live. After a brief summer hiatus, host Thomas Frank Carr and reporter Greg Pickel are back to discuss the latest on head coach Cael Sanderson’s program.
The Aug. 7 show starts with a bit of breaking news. The first 2024-2025 dual date is in for the Nittany Lions. Penn State will host American on Fri., Feb. 21, 2025 in State College. The match is set for 7 p.m. ET at Rec Hall. It could very well be the Lions’ final regular season dual of the year. But, time will tell on that front.
From there, Carr and Pickel fully transition their focus to the Olympics. Five Nittany Lion Wrestling Club members are competing in the men’s freestyle event, which starts on Thursday and runs through the weekend. Roman Bravo-Young, wrestling for Team Mexico, starts his tournament at 57 kilograms Thursday morning. Aaron Brooks, who holds the Team USA 86-kilogram spot, also starts his tournament on Aug. 8. On Aug. 9, NLWC member Kyle Dake starts the 74-kilogram tournament. And Penn State alum Zain Retherford (65 kilograms) and NLWC member Kyle Snyder (97 kilograms) open their respective tournaments on Aug. 10. What are each wrestler’s chances of earning a medal? Pickel gives his thoughts as the duo go weight by weight to offer their thoughts. The most in-depth conversation comes at 86 and 57 kilograms since those brackets were already out before the episode was recorded since they take the mat on Thursday.
You can watch this week’s Penn State wrestling show in the video player above and also on YouTube. Or, you can listen at your favorite destinations for audio like SPOTIFY and APPLE.
Brooks will start the 86-kilogram tournament opposite No. 1 seed and a two-time World bronze medalist Azamat Dauletbekov of Kazakhstan.
“If Brooks wins his first match, his quarterfinal opponent would be the winner of No. 8 seed Hayato Ishiguro of Japan and Feteh Benferdjalla of Algeria,” USA Wrestling writes in a news release. “Ishiburo was a 2018 U20 World champion and won a 2019 U23 World bronze medal. Benferdjalla was a 2020 Olympian and wrestled in two age-group World meets.
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“Should Brooks make it to the semifinals, the athletes who are in the other quarter bracket that could emerge to face him are No. 4 seed Javrail Shapiev of Uzbekistan, No. 5 seed Magomed Ramazanov of Bulgaria, Alexander Moore of Canada and Vladimeri Gamkrelidze of Georgia.”
Most importantly, Brooks is on the opposite side of the bracket from betting favorite Hassan Yazdani of Iran.
RBY, who is competing for Team Mexico, starts his time in the 57-kilogram bracket with two-seed Arsen Harutyunyan of Armenia. He is a three-time bronze medalist at the World Championships. If Bravo-Young gets by him, he’d be on a potential collision course to face betting favorite and Team USA member Spencer Lee in the semifinals.
Action begins in the 57- and 86-kilogram men’s freestyle divisions at 5 a.m. ET Thursday on Peacock.
