Where are Penn State wrestlers in the latest rankings? Cael Sanderson talks Lions' season to date: Notes
Penn State wrestling is on the cusp of the postseason. The team is now just days away from the Big Ten tournament, which will be held over two days, March 9-10, in College Park, Md. The team will have had two weeks of training between beating Edinboro to close out the dual meet portion of the schedule and its trip down the road for the annual conference event. Preseeds will be released on Monday, brackets will be set later in the week, and the chance to qualify for the NCAA Tournament will be here before we know it.
“We just want to make sure that our kids know that we’re ready to go and we’re confident,” head coach Cael Sanderson said this week. “Most of the work has been done. So, now it’s just about just getting ready to compete. And I think this group is very, very competitive. We’ve talked about that over the years and that the bigger the match, the more excited they are. So, yeah, it’s more about just kind of leading them to that final link to where they can just kind of trust what they’ve been doing, and themselves, and just know they’re ready to go, which they are.”
Where are Penn State wrestlers in the latest rankings?
As we noted above, once the Big Ten preseeds come out, these rankings won’t matter quite as much. But, at any rate, here’s a look at where things stand, according to InterMat, before Big Tens. The number in parentheses indicates where the wrestler was ranked last week.
Top 10
- 1Breaking
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- 2
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- 3New
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- 4
Bryce Underwood
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- 5Trending
Dan Lanning
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125 pounds: Braeden Davis, 9 (8)
133 pounds: Aaron Nagao, 11 (11)
141 pounds: Beau Bartlett, 1 (1)
149 pounds: Tyler Kasak, 9 (9)
157 pounds: Levi Haines, 1 (1)
165 pounds: Mitchell Mesenbrink, 5 (6)
174 pounds: Carter Starocci, 1 (1)
184 pounds: Bernie Truax, 6 (6)
197 pounds: Aaron Brooks, 1 (1)
285 pounds: Greg Kerkvliet, 1 (1)
Team: No. 1
Lions have fought through plenty this year
There’s no questioning that Penn State has the top overall team in the country. Often, the implication of saying that makes people think only about the starters. But, as we saw throughout the year, it also means the backups, too. The Lions had to endlessly lean on reserves to fill out the starting lineup as the team dealt with injuries and illnesses, some of which were short-term and others that were not. It has brought the team together and prepped it for the postseason.
“Every year you have something, and every week when you’re preparing for a dual, the season goes fast because you’re just trying to get ready for that match,” Sanderson said. “You have kids that maybe aren’t competing for whatever reason, maybe they’re sick or they’re not feeling great, or they’re injured or something. But, I feel like that’s the way it is every year. It still just comes down to, if you want to do well at the Big Ten or the national tournament, you still just have to compete well in the big rounds and win the big matches. It always comes down to that. So, just making sure our guys know that that’s when we’re at our best, and even if we aren’t, if they think we are, then it works out sometimes.”
