Penn State Wrestling: B1G Championships Grades, MVP
By Chris Snyder
The inevitable happened at the 2021 B1G Wrestling Championships as Iowa took home their second consecutive team title with a score of 159.5, but that doesn’t mean the weekend was a failure for Penn State Wrestling.
The Nittany Lions gave it their best shot, however, they finished as the first-loser with a distant-second team score of 124.0
Let’s break out the report cards and look at how each Penn State Wrestling grappler fared according to my untrained eyes:
125 – Robbie Howard – Fr.
Record: 3-3
Place: 6th
Grade: B+
Wins
No. 14 Zach Spence (MD), 16-4 maj. dec.
No. 13 Dylan Shawver (RUT), 10-1 maj. dec.
No. 9 Dylan Ragusin (MICH), 3-1 SV
Losses
No. 6 Eric Barnett (WIS), 2-3 dec.
No. 3 Malik Heinselman (OSU), 2-5 dec.
No. 8 Michael DeAugustino (NU), 2-4 dec.
Well, look at that. One of my bold predictions for the B1G’s came true. Even a horrendously broken clock which somehow also makes wrestling predictions is right twice a day.
Howard had a successful weekend in his first career B1G tournament as he wrestled tough against some of the higher seeds and blew the doors off the lower seeds in the 125 group.
Robbie isn’t anywhere near Spencer Lee’s level yet (no one is – although, it wouldn’t hurt him to step up his post-match interview game slightly) but it’s not a stretch to think he’ll get over the Malik Heinselman hump soon, and add himself to the next tier of grapplers at 125. His outing in the B1G’s should go a long way towards building his confidence and experience in achieving this.