PSU Wrestling: What went wrong, what went right, NCAA Championships MVP
By Chris Snyder
The final chapter of the 2021 wrestling season came to a close Saturday night during the finals of the NCAA Wrestling Championships, and PSU Wrestling took home its share of hardware.
It was a night PSU Wrestling fans won’t soon forget as they trotted out four wrestlers in the finals. Of the four wrestlers, none of them had ever won an NCAA title, two had never wrestled a single NCAA match until this year, one was a redshirt freshman, and two were beaten in the B1G finals two weeks ago by the very same opponent they were matched up with.
This was going to be a tall order just to bring home two NCAA titles.
But Penn State didn’t bring home two titles.
They brought home every single one in nothing short of dramatic fashion!
If you were locked into the NCAA basketball tourney last night, and you got to witness two huge upsets? I’m sorry you missed the REAL action.
So let’s take a look back at how the NCAA Championships unfolded, more specifically “What went wrong?” and “What went right?”. We’ll start out with the former.
What went wrong?
With the 2021 Nittany Lions’ Wrestling team comprising of six starting freshman, a global pandemic raging, no previous NCAA title winners on the team, limited dual meets and matches, one freshman who unfortunately didn’t qualify for the NCAA Championships, and an experienced and talented Iowa team at the top, it’s no surprise Penn State wasn’t able to bring home their 9th team title in the last 10 years.
It’s hard for me to say anything went particularly “wrong”, more or less things just didn’t fall into place for Penn State to really push Iowa’s ten deep NCAA lineup which included 4 No. 1 seeds.
Joe Lee not winning a match
Yeah, this one hurt. A lot.
During his redshirt freshman campaign Joe had an up and down year, to put it mildly. Inexperience and low match volume is simply a recipe for inconsistency in wrestling.
After a poor showing in the B1G Championships two weeks ago Penn State fans (and myself) were hoping Lee could bounce back and earn a handful of much needed team points for the Nittany Lions.
Losing in the opening round to No. 10 seed Travis Wittlake (OKST), who ended up finishing 4th at 165, was in no way a bad loss. It was pretty much expected.
With a favorable draw in the wrestlebacks, Lee was first matched up with the No. 26 seed Andrew Nicholson (UTC). So again, the best Penn State fans could hope for was a couple victories in the wrestlebacks and maybe some bonus points.
But this didn’t happen as Nicholson smoked Lee in a decision 10-4.
As I’ve said before, who am I to judge any of these hard working, talented athletes? Maybe Joe Lee is dealing with an injury or dealing with something else entirely which can occupy a sliver of focus away from wrestling.
Either way, it was not something Penn State could have afforded this year in the team race.
Brady Berge getting hurt
After a huge upset victory against No. 5 Kaleb Young (IOWA) in the round of 16, Berge looked like he was finally taking a step forward to include his name among the best at 157.
With a difficult quarter final matchup against No. 4 Jesse Dellavecchia, it still wasn’t out of the question for Berge to pull off another upset. At the very worst a loss there and then several victories in the wrestlebacks could land Brady a top 5 finish.
Well, this happened.
Early in the 1st period, Dellavecchia was able to land a single leg on Berge near the lower-right boundary line and he then worked it into a takedown. Normal stuff, right?
Nope.
Berge crumpled to the mat in excruciating pain as it appeared he severely injured his left knee. After a check by the trainer it was quickly apparent Berge would not be able to continue in the match. Nor did it look likely he could continue in the NCAA’s at all.
This was bad news for Penn State and horrible news for Berge as he’s been unable to shake the injury bug from his senior year in high school up until now.
It’s hard to say where he goes from here. Does he rehab like crazy this offseason, heal up, train hard, and come back strong ready to take on the world?
Or does he retire.
Both options are equally likely, but myself and the Penn State faithful wish nothing but the best for you Brady.