Nittany Lions own team lead through NCAA wrestling championship first day
Fridays are routinely known as the best day of the work week, and with a good day on Friday, Penn State's wrestlers could take a major step in working toward their eighth NCAA wrestling title in the past nine years.
The Nittany Lions on Thursday advanced all nine of its entrants into the second round, and six of those are headed to Friday morning's quarterfinal round (11 a.m., ESPNU).
The only surprise was a loss by second-seeded Shakur Rasheed at 184 pounds, but the Lions' six other winners created a seven-point spread (32.5-25.5) over Ohio State in the team standings for that precious piece of hardware called the team trophy.
Iowa is third with 24 points but lost a chance to inch closer with back-to-back defeats at 184 and 197 pounds. Things will sort themselves out on Fridays, they always do, and Penn State's experience with Friday rounds in the past have been nothing short of excellent.
The Nittany Lions' quarterfinalists are Nick Lee at 141, Jason Nolf at 157, Vincenzo Joseph at 165, Mark Hall at 174, Bo Nickal at 197 and Anthony Cassar at heavyweight. Lee, Nolf, Nickal and Cassar scored bonus points with their second victories of the day.
"I think our guys wrestled OK. We have to pick it up and wrestle a little bit better tomorrow and with a little more fire, I think," Penn State coach Cael Sanderson said. "Not much we can do about the past right now; we have to look forward and get ready to roll tomorrow morning."
Freshman Roman Bravo-Young had a much stronger performance against Iowa's Austin DeSanto than during his Big Ten bout, but DeSanto with a late takedown and back points pulled out a 7-2 win.
One flurry on which the Penn State coaches thought Bravo-Young had a takedown ended up with Bravo-Young hitting his head on the scorer's table, Penn State throwing the challenge block (and losing it) and State getting docked a team point for lack of control of the mat area.
"I think Roman wrestled well," Sanderson said. "He didn't come out on top at the end but gave himself a chance at the end. A big turnaround from two weeks ago so hopefully Roman can battle back."
Nick Lee continued his hot streak with his second fall, this one in 3:42 over Sa'Derian Perry of Old Dominionat 141. Lee will face Iowa's Max Murin of Central Cambria in the quarters. He beat Murin at the Big Tens.
Ohio State's Joey McKenna won two easy bouts and will face Minnesota's Mitch McKee on Friday; a bout with Lee on Friday night is anticipated.
Princeton's Matt Kolodzik, the 5-seed, was too much on his feet for Brady Berge at 149, taking down the Lion freshman three times but ultimately yielding two stalling points to make a final 8-5 score.
Nolf exacted some revenge against John Van Brill of Rutgers with five takedowns and a pair of nearfalls for a 19-4 tech fall in 6:47. It was Van Brill that Nolf wrestled in last year's dual meet at Rutgers when he injured his knee and defaulted.
Nolf will face Arizona State's Christian Pagdilao on Friday.
Joseph was in control throughout but couldn't complete a major. He tried for a late two-pointer but slipped off Missouri's Connor Flynn and settled for an 8-4 win and another match against Nebraska's Isaiah White.
Hall was Hall, always in control, ever slick on his feet in his 8-2 win over Cornell's Brandon Womack. Eighth-seeded Taylor Lujan of Northern Iowa is up next for Hall.
This is the weight class that stung; the other two losses at 133 and 149 weren't unexpected but this one turned when Rasheed was out of position after a funky scramble with Ness and ended up on his back with Ness in control. It didn't appear that Rasheed knew he had yielded the takedown, to say nothing of the back points.
"I didn't see," Sanderson said. "I was in the back getting Bo ready to go and I came out and saw the score. It is what it is, he has to bounce back and get ready to roll."
Nickal again made short work of his foe, picking up his second fall of the day against Josh Hokit of Fresno State. He has wrestled an aggregate 5:02 out of a possible 14 minutes and he used his second throw of the day against Josh Hokit of Fresno State for a fall in 2:27.
Nathan Trexler of Stanford is next up for Nickal, who is shooting for his third straight crown and fourth consecutive finals appearance.
And Cassar notched his second bonus-point victory, this one with a takedown with six seconds left to major Tate Orndorff of Utah Valley and set up a match with Wisconsin's Trent Hillger, a 2-0 winner over Maryland's Youssif Hemida.
Oregon State's Amar Dhesi's bout with Minnesota 2-seed Gable Steveson should be interesting, as should Iowa's Sam Stoll and Lehigh's Jordan Wood of Boyertown. Oklahoma State's Derek White winning quietly but would get the Wood-Stoll winner in the semis. Cassar gets the winner of Steveson-Dhesi, a tough foe no matter who emerges.
"Tomorrow's a new day, each match is a new day," Sanderson said. "If we wrestled great, just keep it up, but each individual has to make that decision tomorrow. I like where we're at; I have a lot of confidence in these guys.
"More than that, it's just about them. This is their opportunity …as a team this is their opportunity…this is the national championship and we'll see what they do tomorrow,'' he said.