Penn State Wrestling: Greg Kerkvliet’s path to championship gotten easier?

Have the chances for Penn State Wrestling to win a B1G and/or National Championship at 285 gotten a boost recently?

Now that we know Penn State Wrestling’s Greg Kerkvliet overcame incredible odds last season to not only compete, but to actually be an All-American at 285, it’s safe to say the Nittany Lion faithful are looking forward to see what he can do this upcoming season.

A full and healthy offseason, training with the very best in the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club, as well as working under the best collegiate wrestling coaching staff in the country is a great recipe for success. So there are certainly some high hopes for Kerkvliet going into this season.

But, yeah, there’s sort of a small issue to overcome first.

Namely the B1G is absolutely loaded at 285 as they currently have six of the top seven ranked wrestlers going into the 2021-2022 season. This includes the twin towers* of Gable Steveson (Minn) and Mason Parris (Mich) at one and two respectively and Greg Kerkvliet coming in at four.

As supremely talented as he is, I believe Parris may not be the human roadblock for Kerkvliet’s chances of a B1G or National Title. This still sits squarely on the shoulders of recent Olympic gold medalist and part-time round off back flipper guy, Gable Steveson. He’s the reigning NCAA champion and I don’t see anything preventing him from going back-to-back.

Or maybe there is…

This confirms the many rumors that have swirled around about Steveson making the jump to the WWE. And frankly he has not really been shy about it.

So there we go. One gigantic hurdle out of the way for Kerkvliet on his road to glory!

Not so fast …

According to ESPN, “The 21-year-old signed a NIL deal with WWE that will allow him to attend the University of Minnesota for his senior year and defend the Division I national championship at heavyweight.”

But you know what? I like this even better because Kerkvliet, Parris, and Steveson will now get to battle it out on the mat. May the best enormous, strong, lightning quick human being win.

And that’s how Penn State fans want it to be!

* – Bonus points for anyone out there who can name the two members of this former WWF tag team