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Penn State Wrestling: 5 keys to winning the National Championship

By Chris Snyder

PITTSBURGH, PA - MARCH 23: Members and staff of the Penn State Nittany Lion wrestling team pose for a team photo after winning the team title of the NCAA Wrestling Championships on March 23, 2019 at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Hunter Martin/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)
PITTSBURGH, PA - MARCH 23: Members and staff of the Penn State Nittany Lion wrestling team pose for a team photo after winning the team title of the NCAA Wrestling Championships on March 23, 2019 at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Hunter Martin/NCAA Photos via Getty Images) /
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Here’s how Penn State Wrestling can bring home yet another NCAA team title in 2021

With the Big Ten Wrestling Championship less than two weeks away, wouldn’t it be a great time to lay out the ground work for how Penn State Wrestling can win its 9th NCAA National Championship in 10 years? We thought so too.

Now if you’ve followed college wrestling this season, then you already know winning an NCAA title this year at a school not named “Iowa” is going to be difficult. Winning any NCAA National Championship is difficult but here in Happy Valley we’ve been spoiled as Cael Sanderson makes it look easy.

As we saw with Penn State Wrestling’s National Championship back in 2011, the Nittany Lions don’t need a stacked team from top to bottom to win it all. But, we will need these next five keys to come to fruition if Penn State wants any shot in toppling Iowa.

Key No. 1

Between Roman Bravo-Young, Nick Lee, and Aaron Brooks we need at least 2 individual champions. It would also be nice if the third grappler finishes in the top-3.

One of the staples to taking home a team championship in wrestling is to have some of your guys take home titles themselves. And, Penn State Wrestling is going to need its big guns to come up big for them.

Standing in the way of a championship for RBY at 133 is Oklahoma State’s Daton Fix, Pitts’ Mickey Phillippi, and Iowa’s Austin DeSanto. I believe he can do it, but Roman is going to have to be almost perfect to navigate this field.

Iowa’s Jaydin Eierman, Rutgers’ Sebastian Rivera, and Mizzou‘s Allan Hart are going to be the road blocks Lee will have to plow through if he wants to take home the 141 belt.

As for Brooks, he’ll have to contend with Virginia Tech‘s Hunter Bolen, North Carolina State’s Trent Hidlay, and Binghampton’s Lou DePrez at 184.

An important item to also note, two of these three weight classes (133 and 184) are among Iowa’s weakest. And by “weakest” they are ranked No. 5 at 133 and No. 15 at 184, so they’re still pretty darn solid.

Anything can happen in wrestling, but if all three guys could take home championships, then Penn State Wrestling would be well on their way to another title.

But, more work will need to be done …

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