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NCAA Wrestling Championships: Penn State Wrestling’s paths to titles

By Chris Snyder

NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 19: Nico Megaludis (L), Zain Retherford (C) and Morgan McIntosh of the Penn State Nittany Lions pose with the first place team trophy after the finals of the NCAA Wrestling Championships on March 19, 2016 at Madison Square Garden in New York, New York. (Photo by Hunter Martin/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 19: Nico Megaludis (L), Zain Retherford (C) and Morgan McIntosh of the Penn State Nittany Lions pose with the first place team trophy after the finals of the NCAA Wrestling Championships on March 19, 2016 at Madison Square Garden in New York, New York. (Photo by Hunter Martin/Getty Images) /
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Head coach Cael Sanderson of the Penn State Nittany Lions . (Photo by Hunter Martin/Getty Images) /

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No. 9 Greg Kerkvliet

Of all of the Penn State wrestlers to make their Nittany Lion debut this season, Kerkvliet is the one I’ve probably heaped the most praise upon. For good reason. He’s a former #1 overall recruit, he’s competed and won on the world stage, and he’s coached by Cael Sanderson. What more do you want?

However, some of this praise was a bit, shall we say, premature?

Kerkvliet has a good matchup to get the ole blood flowing in his opening round match against The Citadel’s No. 24 Michael McAleavey. Next up would potentially be Lehigh’s No. 8 Jordan Wood. If there’s one thing we’ve seen from Kerkvliet so far this year, it’s that he dominates anyone not named Gable Steveson, Mason Parris, or Tony Cassioppi. Last I checked Jordan Wood isn’t either of those three giant men.

Once Kerkvliet dispatches of Wood, it’s onto a quarter final match against his good friend and buddy Gable Steveson. Now, outside of Cael Sanderson building a time machine, going back to October 2020, stealing that version of Greg Kerkvliet, and bringing him to the present time, I really don’t think Greg has a chance against Gable. I’m sorry, I just don’t.

Down in the wrestleback bracket I can see Kerkvliet winning a match or two. But if he’s going to make it to the 3rd place match he will have to go through either human road block in Iowa’s No. 5 Tony Cassioppi or ASU’s No. 4 Cohlton Schultz. And I don’t believe this is happening either.

So, my best case scenario is a spot in the 5th place match where hopefully Kerkvliet can win an claim his first top 5 finish in the NCAA’s.

Yep. This is exactly how I see everything playing out.*

* – In my head. I am not liable for any dramatic heartbreaking early round losses or massive amounts of money lost wagering based on my predictions.

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