Penn State weekend wrestling preview: Two matches on deck; will Drew Hildebrandt make his debut?

Penn State wrestling returns to the mat this weekend.

The Nittany Lions kick off the 2022 portion of their schedule Friday night, and it’s all Big Ten matches from here after head coach Cael Sanderson’s team finished the non-conference slate with a perfect 8-0 mark.

It’s time to preview the weekend ahead as Penn State prepares to visit Maryland and battle Indiana at home.

How to watch, follow Penn State wrestling this weekend

Neither match will be on regular television this weekend.

BTN+ will steam both duals, however. Penn State-Maryland starts at 7 p.m. Friday (link to BTN+ here) while the Lions-Hoosiers match starts at 2 p.m. Sunday (streaming link).

Per the usual, longtime program play-by-play man Jeff Byers will call the action from matside. Visit Penn State’s LionVision page to find the audio on both days.

Finally, the team’s official Twitter account posts bout-by-bout updates, and we’ll be discussing it all here on The Wrestling Room forum.

What is the weekend’s biggest question for Penn State?

That’s an easy one: Will 125-pound two-time All-American and Central Michigan transfer Drew Hildebrandt see the starting lineup on either day?

As of Tuesday, Penn State was still working through whatever process it had to so that Hildebrandt could see the lineup. As of Friday morning, however, there was no word as to whether or not he’d be able to.

“We’re trying to get him to where he can compete this weekend, but we’re not quite there yet,” Sanderson said. “That would be ideal, right? We’re halfway through the season here and got two and a half months left. So, if we can get him competing, we’ll certainly do that. We still have a few hurdles to kind of get through.

“We’re excited obviously to add him to the roster and hopefully, we can get him going here soon. That’s obviously the plan, just to get him out there competing as quickly as possible.”

If not, expect Jake Campbell to wrestle for Penn State at 125 pounds.

Also, we’d be remiss not to mention Thursday’s announcement that Brady Berge is returning. It’s unclear when he could possibly enter the lineup, however.

The best bout should come Sunday

It’s no secret that expected lineups (more on those below) and actual ones do not always pan out. Some of that is due to COVID-19 and other illnesses and injuries. Other times, teams just decide to forfeit a match and move on.

At any rate, we’ll keep our fingers crossed that all goes as planned and we see a super showdown at 184 pounds on Sunday. Top-ranked Aaron Brooks of Penn State is slated to wrestle eighth-ranked Donnell Washington. Both enter the anticipated matchup unbeaten.

Lions focused on being the best version of themselves, not scouting UMD/IU

Asked for a scouting report of the Terps and Hoosiers, Sanderson said he’s more worried about how Penn State performs.

“We’re trying to just focus on getting our guys better right now, and making sure they’re doing the little things that they need to do to score points in March,” Sanderson said. “So, we’re going to focus more on our guys. But, both teams are tough. They’re well-coached. We’re expecting some good matches.

“I’m not really the scout guy. We just want to do what we do, and we want to use the tie-ups that we use and dictate the pace of the match. It doesn’t matter who we’re wrestling. We want to do our thing, and that’s what we’re focused on at this point.”

Projected starters for Penn State, Maryland, and Indiana

All courtesy of match notes from Penn State Athletics:

Penn State:

125 Jake Campbell Sr. Pottstown, Pa./Boyertown 0-4
Drew Hildebrandt Sr.+ Granger, Ind./Penn 0-0
133 #1 Roman Bravo-Young Sr. Tucson, Ariz./Sunnyside 7-0
141 #1 Nick Lee Sr.+ Evansville, Ind./Homeschooled 7-0
149 #20 Beau Bartlett So. Tempe, Ariz./Wyoming Seminary (Pa.) 5-2
157 Tony Negron Jr. North Babylon, N.Y./North Babylon 0-3
Terrell Barraclough So. Kaysville, Utah/Layton 4-4
Joe Lee So. Evansville, Ind/Evansville 2-3
165 #24 Creighton Edsell Jr. Wyalusing, Pa./Wyalusing 5-3
174 #1 Carter Starocci So. Erie, Pa./Cathedral Prep 8-0
184 #1 Aaron Brooks Jr. Hagerstown, Md./North Hagerstown 6-0
197 #2 Max Dean Jr. Lowell, Mich./Lowell 8-0
Michael Beard So. Pottstown, Pa./Malvern Prep 8-1
285 #4 Greg Kerkvliet So. Inver Grove Heights, Minn./Simley 6-0

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Maryland:

125 Zach Spence So. Wilmington, Del/Salesianum School
133 King Sandoval Jr. Waldorf, Md./St. Mary’s Ryken
141 Danny Bertoni Sr. Jefferson, Md./Middletown
149 Michael North So. Wadsworth, Ohio/Wadsworth
157 Lucas Cordio Jr. Lancaster, Mass./Nashoba Regional
165 Gaven Bell Fr. Huntington, N.Y./Cold Spring Harbor
174 Dominic Solis So. Laurel, Md./McDonogh School
184 Kyle Cochran Sr. Paramus, N.J./Paramus
197 #31 Jaron Smith Gr. Columbia, Md./Oakland Mills
285 #26 Zach Schrader Sr. Manhattan Beach, Calif./Army-Navy Acad.

Indiana:

125 #25 Jacob Moran So. Portage, Ind. 4-2
133 #19 Brock Hudkins Gr. Danville, Ind. 5-0
Noah Gochberg Fr. Austin, Texas 2-2
141 Cayden Rooks Jr. Columbus, Ind. 5-2
149 Graham Rooks Jr. Columbus, Ind. 3-3
157 Kasper McIntosh Jr. Portage, Ind. 3-2
Derek Gilcher So. Novi, Mich. 1-1
165 Sammy Cokeley Sr. Eudora, Kan. 0-2
174 Sean Grim Jr. Columbus, Ohio 0-3
184 #8 D.J. Washington So. Portage, Ind. 6-0
197 Nick Willham Jr. Greenwood, Ind. 4-1
285 Jacob Bullock Jr. Cahokia, Ill. 2-2
Andrew Irick So. Fishers, Ind. 2-4