Penn State Wrestling Remains At No. 1, Puts Six Atop Individual Weight Classes In National Polls
The Nittany Lions continue to rise, folks.
After the 32-3 demolition of Iowa on Friday night and a 51-0 shutout of Northwestern on Sunday, Penn State wrestling continued its reign at the top of the NWCA coaches poll this week. The Nittany Lions scrounged up all but two votes, while No. 2 Ohio State holds the rest.
As for Intermat’s individual rankings, there is significant movement among some Nittany Lion wrestlers, as six Penn Staters now sit at the top of their respective weight classes. It’s the first time a team has held six individual No. 1 rankings at a time in Division I history.
At 125 pounds, Luke Lilledahl surged into the top spot after defeating No. 6 Dean Peterson. The position has been held by No. 5 Vincent Robinson of North Carolina State for the last few weeks; however, the Wolfpack wrestler fell to No. 12 Nico Provo of Stanford on Friday night. Lilledahl also picked up a 20-5 technical fall victory over No. 25 Dedrick Navarro.
Braeden Davis dropped from No. 7 to No. 11 after his close 2-1 loss to No. 10 Nasir Bailey at 141 pounds. The Nittany Lion now sits at 6-1 on the season after beating No. 32 Billy Dekraker of Northwestern by major decision.
Rocco Welsh claimed the top spot at 184 pounds on Friday night after beating former No. 1 Angelo Ferrari 3-2 in the second tiebreaker overtime period. Welsh jumped over notable foes in No. 3 Aeoden Sinclair of Missouri and No. 4 Max McEnelly of Minnesota. The Nittany Lion also picked up a 22-7 technical fall over Northwestern’s J.D. Perez.
Redshirt freshman heavyweight Cole Mirasola picked up a big win against No. 8 Ben Kueter on Friday night and a 19-4 technical fall over Northwestern’s Gabe Christenson, bumping the Nittany Lion from No. 13 to No. 12.
Penn State true freshmen Marcus Blaze and PJ Duke remain at No. 4 and No. 3 in their respective weight classes this week.
Shayne Van Ness, Mitchell Mesenbrink, Levi Haines, and Josh Barr all remained at the No. 1 positions after successful trips to Iowa and Northwestern.
Penn State wrestling will be back in action on Friday, January 23, at 7 p.m. in Rec Hall when the Nittany Lions host the No. 25-ranked Indiana Hoosiers. The match will be broadcast on Big Ten Plus.
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