Penn State Wrestling: 5 takeaways from the Journeymen Duals

Takeaway No. 5 No real answers as to who will be the guys at 157 and 165

Going into this season both the 157 and 165 slots were going to be a huge question mark.

Was Joe Lee going to slide down to 157, shake off the inconsistencies of last season, and have success in the process?

Would the Penn State faithful get to see top-five recruit Alex Facundo take over at 165?

Would I be able to watch a Penn State dual meet without eating an entire plate of nachos?

All excellent questions.

But sadly, yesterday didn’t yield any long-term answers for these two weight classes. Both Joey Blumer and Creighton Edsell took over the duties at 157 and 165 respectively.

While the redshirt sophomore Edsell had seen some light dual meet experience in his Penn State career, redshirt junior Blumer was making his Penn State debut as he had only previously participated in opens and invitationals.

Creighton took advantage of the start by going an impressive 2-0 yesterday in earning a major decision and a decision.

However, it was a different story for Blumer.

He lost a tough 8-3 decision in his first match against Sacred Heart’s Nick Palumbo and he was pretty much manhandled in his next match against OSU’s No. 15 ranked Hunter Willits. Blumer fell 19-6 to lose the major decision against a very difficult opponent.

But hey, it’s hard to really know anything about an athlete until you hold their feet to the fire, right?

The bottom line is this, Penn State is probably going to throw out a plethora of grapplers this season at 157 and 165. But, if they want to have any shot at dethroning Iowa, then they’re going to have to find a possible All-American at one of the spots. Because I know Iowa already has them at each weight.