Penn State wrestling show: What records are the Lions chasing at the NCAA Championships?

Penn State wrestling aims to make history at the 2024 NCAA Championships. The No. 1 Nittany Lions are taking 10 entrants to the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Mo. The national tournament starts Thursday afternoon. It runs through Saturday night.

On this week’s edition of the Blue-White Illustrated Penn State wrestling show, we cover everything you need to know to get ready for ‘March Matness.’ You can watch it in the video player above and also on YouTube. Or, you can listen at your favorite destinations for audio like SPOTIFY and APPLE.

Penn State chases history in Kansas City

Host Thomas Frank Carr and reporter Greg Pickel start the show with a general overview of nationals. Head coach Cael Sanderson’s team is heavily favored to win its third consecutive team title. But, that’s not all that is on the line. The list of possible accomplishments by the end of Saturday night include:

–Becoming the second team to ever have 10 All-Americans. The Lions could join 2000-2001 Minnesota as the only college wrestling team to ever accomplish that feat. A wrestler must finish in eighth place or better in his respective weight class to earn All-American honors.

–Senior Carter Starocci (174 pounds) and graduate senior Aaron Brooks (197 pounds) could become just the sixth and seventh wrestlers in the sport’s lengthy history to win four NCAA titles. The only five people currently in that exclusive club are Cornell’s Kyle Dake and Yianni Diakomihalis, Sanderson (who accomplished it at Iowa State), Ohio State’s Logan Stieber, and Oklahoma State’s Pat Smith.

–Penn State is one of just two teams (the other is Iowa) that have crowned five national champions in one year twice. With six top-two seeds at this year’s tournament, the Lions could become the only group to ever crown five three times or perhaps the only to ever earn six or more in one year.

–Sanderson could tie Oklahoma State’s E.C. Gallagher for the second-most team titles ever as a head coach with 11 if the Lions win this year as expected. Iowa’s Dan Gable leads all coaches with 15.

–Iowa holds the all-time tournament team point record with 170. The record has stood since 1997. Penn State will take aim at it this year.

Weight-by-weight breakdown

From there, this week’s BWI Penn State wrestling show moves on to a weight-by-weight breakdown. How many All-Americans could the Lions have? What about national champions? The predictions are in.

Who will each Nittany Lion face first in Kansas City?

Here’s the breakdown:

125 pounds: No. 1 Braeden Davis, Penn State. vs. winner of No. 33 Tristan Lujuan, Michigan State vs. Mike Joyce, Brown

133 pounds: No. 10 Aaron Nagao, PSU vs. No. 23 Marlon Yarbrough, Virginia

141 pounds: No. 2 Beau Bartlett, Penn State vs. No. 31 Kai Owen, Colorado

149 pounds: No. 7 Tyler Kasak, PSU vs. No. 26 Jaden Abas, Stanford

157 pounds: No. 1 Levi Haines, PSU vs. winner of No. 33 Nick Stampoulous, Buffalo vs. No. 32 Isaax Wilcox, Ohio State

165 pounds: No. 2 Mitchell Mesenbrink, Penn State vs. No. 31 Maxx Mayfield, Northwestern

174 pounds: No. 9 Carter Starocci, PSU vs. No. 24 Andrew Sparks, Minnesota

184 pounds: No. 6 Bernie Truax, Penn State vs. No. 27 Cameron Pine, Clarion

197 pounds: No. 1 Aaron Brooks, PSU vs. winner of No. 33 Evan Bates, Northwestern vs. No. 32 John Crawford, Franklin & Marshall

285 pounds: No. 1 Greg Kerkvliet, Penn State vs. winner of No. 33 Jordan Greer, Ohio vs. No. 32 Nick Willham, Indiana

See full brackets here.

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