One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five days.

It’s been 1,855 days since the then-No. 2 Penn State wrestling team squared off with then-No. 1 Iowa at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, Iowa, on January 31, 2020.

A contentious dual between the two elite programs went down to the wire. Penn State’s Mark Hall, No. 1 at 174, fell to No. 2 Michael Kemerer in a bout that shifted the momentum.

Heading into the final bout, Penn State led 17-16 but needed an upset by No. 15 Seth Nevills over Iowa’s No. 3 Tony Cassioppi to claim the road upset. It wasn’t meant to be, as Cassioppi won by a 7-0 decision, cementing the 19-17 win for Iowa at home.

Throwback to 2020, Tony Cassioppi secured a 7-0 victory over Seth Nevills, clinching an Iowa Dual Meet win over #2 Penn State. pic.twitter.com/OTD4dRExHD

— Saturday Night Lights (@WrestlingSNL) January 31, 2025

That was Cael Sanderson and Co.’s second dual loss of the shortened 2020 season and just the 16th in his 11 seasons as Penn State’s coach. It was Penn State’s first season with multiple dual meet defeats since 2015.

Nobody knew it at the time, but that defeat in Iowa City would be the last suffered by Penn State for at least five years.

For 1,855 days, Penn State has sat untouched at the top of the wrestling world. With its victory last Friday against American, the Nittany Lions have won 71 consecutive dual meets, breaking Iowa’s Big Ten record of 69 from 2007 to 2011 and just five shy of Oklahoma State’s NCAA record of 76 from 1937-51.

The world has changed so much in the last 1,855 days. Here’s what the world looked like last time Penn State lost a wrestling dual meet.

Penn State’s Starting Running Back Was Journey Brown

About a month before the fateful Iowa dual meet, Penn State’s football team played in the 2019 Cotton Bowl Classic in Arlington against Memphis, winning a 53-39 shootout. Journey Brown set a school bowl game record with 202 rushing yards and a pair of touchdowns in the game, winning offensive MVP.

The redshirt sophomore had seized the starting job midway through the regular season from a crowded room that consisted of Ricky Slade, Noah Cain, and Devyn Ford. He ran for 890 yards and 12 touchdowns on just 126 carries. His 1,024 yards from scrimmage led the team. He looked like he was going to rise into stardom in 2020 and follow former teammates Saquon Barkley and Miles Sanders as high NFL Draft picks.

Sadly, Brown’s journey was cut short in a heartbreaking fashion. In October 2020, it was announced he would miss the season due to a medical issue that was soon clarified as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, forcing him to medically retire from football. Brown stayed in the sports world after football and is now a pit crew member for Trackhouse Racing in NASCAR.

The World Was Mourning Kobe Bryant

Where were you at 2:32 p.m. on January 26, 2020?

If you’re an avid basketball fan, you know exactly where you were when you learned that basketball icon and Philadelphia native Kobe Bryant had passed away in a sudden helicopter crash. Few times in recent history have we seen the world stop the way it did to mourn Bryant.

There wasn’t just mourning in his hometown or the city that made him famous, he was mourned worldwide. Beyond his incredible NBA career, he had become a global star and one of the most recognizable athletes in the world.

Coronavirus Was Barely In The U.S.

On January 31, the seventh and eighth cases of coronavirus (later known as COVID-19) in the United States were reported. Only one of them was east of the Mississippi River. The northeast didn’t see its first confirmed case until the next day in Massachusetts.

Of course, this wasn’t a minor inconvenience like some thought it would be at the time. Just over a month after Penn State wrestling’s final loss, the virus cut the NCAA wrestling season short and shut down the entire world, changing lives forever. The fact that some still refer to time as “pre-COVID” and “post-COVID” says a lot.

The Nation Watched A Presidential Impeachment Trial

For the first time since 1998 and the third time in American history, a president was impeached on December 18, 2019, when President Donald Trump was impeached for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, relating to his controversial call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier that year. His impeachment trial began on January 18 and was ongoing during this time, culminating in an expected acquittal on February 5 that kept him in office.

Penn State Hoops Was Ranked

After a great start to the season, the 2024-25 Penn State basketball team was this close to being ranked, coming in at an unofficial No. 30 on December 9 after their electric upset victory over Purdue. Unfortunately, the basketball team fell into the doldrums and made the great feelings in December feel like years away.

The last time Penn State was ranked in basketball was 2020. At this time in late January of that year, the Nittany Lions were No. 24 and in the midst of a seven-game winning streak that catapulted them to their first top-10 ranking since 1996.

Despite proceeding to lose five of their next six games, Penn State remained firmly in the projected NCAA Tournament field for their first appearance in a decade until COVID-19 shut the world down ahead of the Big Ten Tournament, preventing them from getting their one shining moment.

Two years later, a ragtag group led by Jalen Pickett and Andrew Funk ended the drought, bringing Penn State to the NCAA Tournament in 2022.

Patrick Mahomes Had Zero Rings

Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs have become the villains of the NFL with their perennial dominance, winning three Super Bowls and appearing in five of the last six.

However, the last time Penn State wrestling lost a dual meet, the Chiefs weren’t the hated dynasty that had most of America rooting for the Eagles in Super Bowl LIX.

Just two days after the Iowa dual, Mahomes and the Chiefs hoisted the Lombardi Trophy at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami as champions of Super Bowl LIV, their first title in 51 years. If only we knew at the time what would happen next.