Penn State Wrestling takeaways from Day 1 of B1G Championships
By Chris Snyder
How did the young Penn State Wrestling squad do in Sessions I & II of the 2021 B1G Wrestling Championship?
Before I answer this question, let me go off on a tangent.
Hope is an emotion which all humans are inherently born with. Hope is also an incredibly powerful emotion. And when it shatters, it not only brings down the wall of hope erected, it can also crumble people down to the core.
In the Covid-shortened 2021 B1G regular season, the Nittany Lions only saw action in six dual meets and compiled a perfect record of 6-0 in the process. But aside from Michigan, they largely didn’t see action against some of the B1G’s best in Iowa, Nebraska, and Minnesota.
Therefore, leading into the 2021 B1G Championships, there was a tremendous amount of hope laid at the feet of Cael Sanderson and his wrestling team which featured 6 starting freshman.
The excitement of learning Beau Bartlett and Greg Kerkvliet will be Penn State’s guys at 149 and 285 built up this hope that maybe, just maybe, they could do the unthinkable and shock the B1G wrestling world by toppling behemoth Iowa. Thus cementing another legacy defining moment for the great Cael Sanderson.
Well, that sound you heard after Joe Lee lost in the opening round (to a guy he previously pinned a couple of weeks back) and both Brady Berge and Greg Kerkvliet losing in the quarter-finals was my plastic cup flying into the wall after my hand and arm gave it kinetic energy.
That other sound you heard was the air gushing out of the “Penn State is going to win the 2021 B1G Championships” balloon.