PSU Wrestling: Try, try again

UNIVERSITY PARK, PA — No. 3 Penn State (0-0, 0-0 B1G) will travel to Evanston, Ill., for a tri-meet at Northwestern University on Saturday, Jan. 30. The Lions will have dual meets against host Northwestern and the Indiana Hoosiers in Welsh-Ryan Arena. Penn State faces Indiana at 12 p.m. Eastern (11 a.m. Central/local) and then battles #16 Northwestern at 4 p.m. Eastern (3 p.m. Central/local).

The Penn State Nittany Lions will be opening their dual meet season with the tri-meet as its first two regularly scheduled duals were postponed.

Penn State is ranked No. 3 in the latest InterMat Tournament Power Index (TPI). The Lions have nine wrestlers ranked in the latest InterMat individual rankings: Roman Bravo-Young, 3rd at 133; Nick Lee, 2nd at 141; Jarod Verkleeren, 10th at 149; Brady Berge, 11th at 157; Joe Lee, 6th at 165; Carter Starocci, 5th at 174; Aaron Brooks, 3rd at 184; Michael Beard, 13th at 197; Greg Kerkvliet, 5th at 285.

Northwestern will enter the weekend with a 1-2 record. The Wildcats are coming off a 1-1 weekend in a tri-dual, having beaten Maryland 21-12 and lost to Nebraska 26-10. Northwestern opened its season with a 28-8 loss to Purdue. The Wildcats feature five ranked wrestlers: Michael DeAugustino, 8th at 125; Chris Cannon, 16th at 133; Yahya Thomas, 20th at 149; Ryan Deakin, 1st at 157; Lucas Davison, 11th at 197.

Penn State leads the all-time series with Northwestern 17-1. The Lions have won 15 straight, including the last meeting, a 30-9 win in Rec Hall last year on Jan. 12, 2020. penn State also won the last battle in Evanston, a 33-8 victory on Jan. 11, 2019.

Indiana was off last weekend and is 0-2 on the year. The Hoosiers have lost to Illinois (39-3) and Michigan (32-6) so far this season. Indiana has one ranked wrestler, Brock Hudkins, who is 16th at 125.

Penn State owns a 20-0-1 lead in the all-time series with Indiana, including seven straight victories. The Lions won the last meeting, a 35-9 victory at Indiana on Jan. 27, 2019. The Hoosiers have not been to Penn State since the Lions won 44-3 on Dec. 17, 2017, in Rec Hall.

The Big Ten released its schedule on New Year’s Eve day. Every Big Ten team will host three dual meets and each team will compete only against conference opponents, totaling nine duals. Penn State will host the 2021 Big Ten Championships on Saturday and Sunday, March 6-7. The 2021 NCAA Championships will take place on March 18-20 in the Enterprise Center in St. Louis, Mo.

All dates, including the post-season, are subject to change. Under current Big Ten guidance, public tickets will not be sold for 2020-21 Penn State wrestling home matches.

All rankings listed are InterMat/InterMat TPI as of Jan. 12, 2021.