Penn State Downs #12 Northwestern, 30-9

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Penn State Nittany Lions (5-1, 2-0 B1G), ranked No. 2 in the latest InterMat Tournament Power Index, dominated No. 12 Northwestern (2-3, 0-2 B1G) for its second Big Ten dual meet victory of the weekend. Penn State won seven bouts to roll to a 30-9 victory in a Rec Hall Sunday matinee.

Coming off a win on Friday over Illinois, Penn State controlled the dual with Northwestern from the outset. The Nittany Lions won seven bouts and picked up four bonus point wins. Competing for the second time in three days after losing top-ranked heavyweight Anthony Cassar and All-American 197-pounder Kyle Conel to injury and short a couple more ranked starters, Penn State still rolled in front of over 6,300 fans in sold out Rec Hall.

The dual began at 133. Sophomore Roman Bravo-Young (Tucson, Ariz.), ranked No. 3 nationally at 133 met Dylan Utterback and rolled to a 23-8 technical fall at the 6:26 mark, giving Penn State an early 5-0 lead. Junior Nick Lee (Evansville, Ind.), ranked No. 2 at 141, matched Bravo-Young with a technical fall of his own, picking up a 20-5 tech at the 4:51 mark over Northwestern’s Alec McKenna. Sophomore Jarod Verkleeren (Greensburg, Pa.) met Eric Yang at 149 and dominated the bout, posting an 8-2 victory with 2:05 in riding time.

No. 4 Brady Berge (Mantorville, Minn.) was out once more at 157 and Bo Pipher (Paonia, Colo.) took on No. 1 Ryan Deakin. Pipher battled the top-ranked Wildcat before dropping a 6-0 decision as Northwestern picked up its first win of the dual. Senior Vincenzo Joseph (Pittsburgh, Pa.), ranked No. 1 at 16 and made short work of Shayne Oster. Joseph took the Wildcat down, locked up a cradle and picked up the fall at the 0:56 mark. Joseph’s pin gave Penn State a 19-3 lead at halftime.

Senior Mark Hall (Apple Valley, Minn.), ranked No. 1 at 174, continued Penn State’s dominance to start the second half. Hall rolled to a 17-2 tech fall over Northwestern’s Tyler Morland at the 5:21 mark to give the Nittany Lions a 24-3 lead. Redshirt freshman Creighton Edsell (Wyalusing, Pa.) moved up a weight and stepped in for No. 8 Aaron Brooks (Hagerstown, Md.) at 184. Edsell thrilled the Rec Hall faithful with a third period escape, late takedown and riding time to post a 4-1 win.

Senior Shakur Rasheed (Coram, N.Y.), wrestling for the first time in ten months this weekend, made his second start of the season at 197 and dropped a 7-5 decision to Lucas Davison. True freshman Seth Nevills (Clovis, Calif.) wrestled in his second dual meet as Penn State’s starting heavyweight and rolled to an 8-1 win over NU’s Jack Heyob, putting Penn State up 30-6. Freshman Brandon Meredith (Limerick, Pa.) took on No. 7 Michael DeAugustino at 125 in the dual’s final match-up. Meredith mounted a late-rally against the ranked Wildcat but DeAugustino won 7-3, making the final score 30-9 in Penn State’s favor.