A long offseason came to an end Thursday night for Penn State wrestling as it romped in-state non-conference foe Bloomsburg 42-3.

It was not only a day of celebration — raising another national championship banner with two-time champion Levi Haines in the building — but also a toast to new beginnings, with two expected starters making their debuts and three holdovers debuting at new weights.

Despite all the change, one thing stayed the same, as always: Penn State scored, and scored, and scored.

In the 10 bouts, Penn State outscored Bloomsburg 140-39 by virtue of a staggering 39 takedowns. For any other team, that’d be a historic level of offense, but it’s just another day for the Nittany Lions.

“I think we just try to keep every match the same,” Rocco Welsh said after the dual meet. “Every match, we’re just trying to dominate the opponent and score as many points as we can.”

Welsh, a reigning Big Ten champion and national runner-up at 184 pounds, was one of five Penn State wrestlers to win by technical fall. He did so in just four and a half minutes with six takedowns.

That message of relentless offense is something the team has embraced for years under Cael Sanderson, constantly pushing the pace to wear out opponents.

Luke Lilledahl opened the dual with a 19-4 tech-fall win in just 4:09 before the collegiate wrestling debut of world champion freestyler Masanosuke Ono.

Ono wowed the crowd with six takedowns in the first 92 seconds, showcasing world-class offense that should translate well to folkstyle, but growing pains were evident as the match slowed after he took an 18-5 lead early.

His attacks slowed, he lost out on scrambles, and ultimately had to settle for a 20-9 major decision in what looked like a massive adrenaline dump after his long wait finally ended and he got back on the mat.

“He looked pretty good,” Sanderson said. “That’s his first folkstyle match ever in his life, so it’s fun to see him get out there and get it going. I think he got a little tired at the end. Folkstyle’s pretty different, but he’ll make those adjustments fast.”

One thing Penn State has made its signature is the gas tank of its wrestlers, often finding the extra umph to push them over the line late in matches. If any room could help turn Ono into more of a seven-minute wrestler, it’s this one.

But it wasn’t just the constant offense on display Thursday night.

There was the brute force of Shayne Van Ness and his bow-and-arrow pin of Jay Chase in just 86 seconds at 149 pounds.

There was the grind-it-out style you typically see in the bigger matches, as Tyler Kasak wrestled his first folkstyle match in 500 days, accruing almost three minutes of riding time in an 8-1 decision over Michael Turi.

“He’s a guy you really missed,” Sanderson said about Kasak, who redshirted in 2025-26. “He’s just a competitor. He’s a bigger-the-match, the better he wrestles kind of guy.”

There was the mix of styles you saw from Josh Barr and PJ Duke, who won their matches by tech fall but did so with ferocious rideouts, tilts, and quick offense from neutral.

All told, it was a ho-hum kind of win, one that you expect from a team that’s now won an NCAA-record 87 consecutive dual meets. With a much stiffer opponent coming on Sunday in Norman against Oklahoma, it’ll be the first chance for this lineup to prove where they belong in the pecking order this season.

While Sanderson didn’t rule out a season and weight debut for Marcus Blaze, the same 10 could very well get an encore in a few days’ time.

“It should be close [to today’s],” Sanderson said when asked about what the lineup might look like. “We’ve got to go talk and figure out what makes sense with the lineup.”

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