The Penn State Nittany Lions have won every dual they’ve wrestled since January 31, 2020, and this winning streak is expected to continue into the 2024-2025 season. Penn State’s biggest competition this year will come from the Nebraska Cornhuskers, who boast ten ranked wrestlers, including six in the Top 10, but there are still a number of notable matches to watch across this year’s schedule.
Here are three of the biggest takeaways from this year’s dual slate:
Lehigh dual offers first potential Top 25-ranked team test
Penn State’s schedule starts light with just one dual in November against the Drexel Dragons along with the Black Knight Invite on November 24, but action picks up in December when Penn State travels to Bethlehem for a battle with in-state foe Lehigh. The Mountain Hawks finished last year ranked No. 17 in the dual rankings and 15th at NCAAs with three All-Americans, and they’ll come into this season with seven ranked wrestlers.
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This dual will provide an important look at where the team sits fitness wise heading into a busy December, but it will also be the first chance that some of the new faces in the lineup have to take on opponents in the Top 20. True freshman Josh Barr, for instance, will be expected to wrestle No. 22 Mickey O’Malley of Drexel to kick off the year, but he’s likely to meet his first All-American opponent of the season against Lehigh in former Nittany Lion No. 6 Michael Beard. Beard finished seventh at NCAAs for the Nittany Lions in 2021 before transferring to Lehigh where he earned a Round of 12 finish in 2023 and an 8th-place finish in 2024. If Barr beats Beard, he’ll skyrocket up the rankings, but even keeping this bout close with the All-American Mountain Hawk would be a good sign for Barr at 197 pounds.
Barr, however, is not the only underclassman who will be pushed by Lehigh. Penn State’s Braeden Davis, the 2024 Big Ten champion at 125 pounds, is currently ranked No. 11 for the Nittany Lions at 133 pounds. He’ll likely face No. 1 Ryan Crookham of Lehigh, a fellow sophomore and last year’s third-place finisher at the weight. Davis was seeded No. 1 at 125 pounds last year the NCAA tournament because of his stellar conference tournament performance, but he ultimately fell in the Round of 12. Up a weigh though, poses an interesting challenge to the field. Crookham, however, will be a tough early battle.
Nittany Lions will meet three teams with all ten ranked athletes from December to February
Beyond Lehigh, Penn State will meet Wyoming and Binghamton in December before running into the only two other non-conference teams on the schedule who finished in the Top-25 last year, both on December 22: Little Rock and Missouri. Little Rock is tough and should not be underestimated with its eight ranked wrestlers, but the Tigers have all ten of their guys in the Top 33, making them even more of a threat to the reigning champs.
Missouri will be favored in three bouts including 174 pounds with No. 1 Keegan O’Toole, 197 pounds with No. 4 Rocky Elam and 125 pounds with No. 18 Noah Surtin. Elam will push Barr, but the big match will be against O’Toole, as Penn State is expected to field No. 2 Levi Haines, last year’s NCAA champion at 157 pounds. O’Toole, who won two titles at 165 pounds, is bumping up to the new weight for the first time along with Haines, and, if they meet in this dual, the bout would be a rematch from the 2024 senior world team trials were Haines picked up the win. This might be one of the biggest, most intriguing regular season individual duals of the year.
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Even with Missouri’s ten ranked wrestlers, and even if O’Toole, Elam and Surtin all win with bonus, it’s going to be hard to stop the Nittany Lions. Penn State’s star power is just too strong with seven athletes ranked in the top five and three ranked No. 1. Penn State’s 165-pound Mitchell Mesenbrink is also a bonus machine and will likely be the face of the Nittany Lions, alongside four-time NCAA champion and multiple-time Hodge Trophy finalist Carter Starocci at 184 pounds.
Mitchell Mesenbrink putting the moves on Coach 🤣#B1GWrestling x @pennstateWREST pic.twitter.com/HPPKtNGjp3
— Big Ten Wrestling (@B1GWrestling) October 8, 2024
The opponent favored in the greatest number of individual matches across Penn State’s schedule is the Nebraska Cornhuskers, who Penn State will meet on January 17. Nebraska boasts ten ranked wrestlers like Missouri, but four of those are favored over the Nittany Lions.
The Huskers are led by No. 4 Caleb Smith at 125 pounds, No. 4 Antrell Taylor at 157 pounds, No. 4 Brock Hardy at 141 pounds and No. 5 Ridge Lovett at 149 pounds. Of those four top-five athletes, only Smith and Taylor have the edge right now on paper against Penn State, along with their teammates No. 9 Silas Allred at 197 pounds and No. 14 Jacob Van Dee at 125 pounds, but Lovett vs. Penn State’s No. 2 Shayne Van Ness will be a competitive bout that could easily go either way. Hardy could also be a threat to Penn State’s Beau Bartlett at 141 pounds, as Hardy does have a win over Bartlett from 2023 and is always competitive. Bartlett beat Hardy 9-6 in their lone meeting last year, but this is not a match to dismiss. Everything would have to break Nebraska’s way for the Huskers to contend for a win here, and No. 27 Christopher Minto and No. 29 Harley Andrews would have to avoid giving up too much bonus points at 174 and 285 pounds, but a close dual is not out of the question based on the current rankings and projections.
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The Ohio State Buckeyes will also field ten ranked wrestlers against Penn State on February 14 in a match where the Bucks are favored at just two weights. The issue for Ohio State in this dual is Penn State has a top-ranked athlete in almost all of their best weights, making it difficult to see where the Buckeyes could gain enough of an edge to build momentum. For example, at Ohio State’s best weight, 141 pounds, No. 2 Jesse Mendez is expected to wrestle No. 3 Beau Bartlett of Penn State, an athlete who does have a dual win over him from last year. At heavyweight where Ohio State has No. 3 Nick Feldman, Penn State has No. 1 Greg Kerkvliet who beat Feldman three times, including a 12-0 result in last year’s dual. This trend also continues to 174 pounds where the Bucks currently have last year’s NCAA finalist Rocco Welsh at No. 3 and Penn State has another returning national champion in No. 2 Levi Haines. Ohio State is favored at 197 pounds with No. 11 Luke Geog expected to wrestle No. 23 Josh Barr, but, by February, Barr is likely to develop further, potentially making this a toss-up match as well. The Buckeyes are a trophy-contending team; Penn State is just that stacked that even Ohio State could struggle to win multiple matches.
The dual with Iowa could yield another No. 1 vs. No. 2 individual match-up
In addition to Nebraska and Ohio State, Penn State will see six additional Big Ten foes including Michigan State on January 10, Rutgers on January 24, Iowa on January 31, Michigan on February 7, Maryland on February 9 and Illinois on February 16.
Of those duals, Illinois will actually pose the biggest challenge from a depth perspective with nine ranked wrestlers, though the Fighting Illini are out-ranked in seven of the ten weights by the Nittany Lions with only one of those matchups — No. 1 Carter Starocci vs. No. 8 Edmond Ruth — featuring two top-ten wrestlers.
Flashback to when Edmond Ruth capped off the 2024 season with a seventh-place finish at 174 pounds 💪😤#Illini I #HTTO pic.twitter.com/4zaKPuEwhu
— Illinois Wrestling (@IlliniWrestling) August 16, 2024
But it’s the Iowa Hawkeyes, with their eight ranked athletes who will inspire some of the most interesting individual bouts. Starting at 133 pounds, this dual could feature a rematch between two 125-pounders from last season in 2024 Big Ten champion Davis and 2024 NCAA finalist Drake Ayala. Iowa's Ayala earned the win in their last meeting by a score of 4-2, and he'll come into the bout ranked higher at No. 7 to Davis' No. 11. But, by the time Davis meets Ayala, he will likely have wrestled No. 1 Crookham, No. 2 Nasir Bailey of Little Rock and No. 6 Dylan Shawver of Rutgers. If he's run the table by that point, this match against Ayala could look differently than it did in his last meeting with the Hawkeye lightweight.
Six other weights feature a top-ten match-up headlined, on paper, by No. 1 Mitchell Mesenbrink vs. No. 2 Michael Caliendo. This is, right now, just the second No. 1 vs. No. 2 prospective matchup on Penn State's schedule beyond the No. 1 Keegan O'Toole vs. No. 2 Levi Haines potential matchup in the Missouri dual, but this bout between Mesenbrink and Caliendo is likely to be less competitive than O'Toole vs. Haines. In two of their last three meetings, Mesenbrink majored Caliendo, putting up a combined 52 points against the Hawk compared to Caliendo's 22. He'll look to roll through Caliendo again as he builds out his Hodge Trophy contending resume.
The other big matches to watch in this dual will be No. 4 Kyle Parco of Iowa vs. No. 2 Shayne Van Ness of Penn State and No. 1 Jacori Teemer of Iowa vs. No. 5 Tyler Kasak of Penn State. These matches both feature a transfer Arizona State veteran All-American turned Hawkeye vs. a third-place NCAA finisher sophomore from Penn State, and while Penn State is favored at the lighter of the two weights, both could go either way.
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Van Ness, who sat out last year with injury, has the last win over Parco at the NCAA tournament 7-2, but Parco is tough and gritty. His match against Van Ness, and his regular season overall, will be an interesting test to if he's able to jump another level in the Iowa room.
Parco and his teammate Teemer will both be chasing their first career national titles in their final seasons this year. Teemer holds the higher ranking, coming in at No. 1 in the pre-seaon ranking by way of his second-place finish to Levi Haines of Penn State last year. Haines has bumped up, leaving a scrappy underclassman in Tyler Kasak to take his place for Penn State. Kasak wrestled at 149 pounds last year in place of Van Ness, who was hurt, and he proved he can compete with the best, beating Ridge Lovett 10-1 at NCAAs and also scoring career wins over All-Americans Quinn Kinner, Ty Watters and Dylan D'Emilio. This dual is happening in Bryce Jordan Center, giving both athletes the biggest stage possible. The home fan base may offer Kasak to edge too, even against the No. 1-ranked athlete at the weight.
2024 NWCA All-Star Classic, Exhibition
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Penn State will have 6 Competing in the Event in Rec Hall on Nov. 16th
B. Bartlett (141) - Shayne Van Ness (149) - Tyler Kasak (157)
Levi Haines (174) - Carter Starocci (184) - Greg Kerkvliet (285)@pennstateWREST @nwcawrestling pic.twitter.com/DGXiBBIvzc
If this dual was at Iowa, one of the big storylines would be the potential for an athlete to get 'Carver'd,' essentially at top-ranked athlete being beaten in a shocking way by Iowa. The Bryce Jordan Center takes away that Iowa advantage, but that doesn't mean that upsets won't happen. Heavyweight could be interesting to weight to watch for upset potential in particular, as No. 1 Greg Kerkvliet will likely take on No. 11 Ben Kueter, a redshirt freshman who has now completely devoted himself to wrestling after finishing second in the world this summer at the U20 World Championships. Kueter is still developing as a college wrestler, and Greg Kerkvliet is at the top of game, so it's bold to see anything unexpected happening in this bout, but something unexpected always happens in this dual, so don't be surprised if a new face emerges or someone pulls off a radical upset at any of the ten weights.
REWIND: Here's what happened the last time Penn State met Iowa in State College
This is Penn State vs. Iowa, one of college wrestling's biggest showdowns. Expect drama, intensity and emotion in every bout.
After the Iowa dual and the rest of the Big Ten schedule, Penn State will wrap up its schedule against American University on February 21 before preparing for the 2025 postseason.
