Penn State wrestling to host Big 12 school for December dual meet
Penn State wrestling will welcome a Big 12 opponent to State College during the 2024 portion of its 2024-2025 schedule. Wyoming will invade Rec Hall on Sun., Dec. 15. A start time for the non-conference match is not yet set. A television assignment is not yet out, either. It’s believed to be the first dual meet meeting between the two schools.
“When the opportunity to dual against Penn State came up, we jumped on it,” Wyoming head coach Mark Branch told the school’s official website. “Those are the kind of opportunities we want for this team. We have several guys who can be All-Americans, so you want to wrestle the best, and Penn State has proven who they are for the last decade.”
The Penn State trip is part of a 13-dual, five-tournament schedule for Wyoming that will span much of the country.
“Our message to our team is, raise your expectations,” Branch said. “We have a very solid lineup and a lot of experience, yet we are still relatively young. We need to take that experience we gained last year and make big jumps. Our schedule is tougher than it has been in several years, and we expect our team to step up to the challenge.”
Penn State has not yet released its complete 2024-2025 schedule and likely won’t for some time. However, some non-conference matches will continue to trickle out over the days and weeks ahead. The Nittany Lions are expected to host American to close out the dual meet season in State College in February. And, we do know their non-conference home and away opponents. They face Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, and Maryland at home and Nebraska, Illinois, Ohio State, Rutgers away from State College. When those matches will be, though, is unclear.
Early thoughts on Penn State-Wyoming
This is a fun dual meet early in the season. The highlight match will come in the light weights. Returning All-American Jore Volk competes for the Cowboys at 125 pounds. He will likely not see Braeden David, who he beat at nationals last year to earn a podium placing. But, if he stays at that weight, and if Penn State starts freshman and U20 champ Luke Lilledahl, it could be one of the best individual matches of the sport’s non-conference slate. Wyoming also has NCAA qualifier Gabe Willochell, who wrestled at 149 last year, and Joey Novak, who was at 197.
