Penn State Wrestling outlasts No. 21 Lehigh, 23-16: Full results
By Chris Snyder
The Nittany Lions Wrestling Team faced an always challenging Lehigh team on Sunday as they pulled out the 23-16 win and now move to 5-0 on the season
Coming off a tough dual against Penn this past Friday, where clearly the Nittany Lions were not 100%, the Penn State Wrestling squad were next tasked with hosting the Lehigh Mountain Hawks on Sunday, December 5th inside Rec Hall.
It’s always challenging to wrestle with a quick turnaround of less than two days, and it’s never easy to compete when the team isn’t fully healthy.
So how did Penn State Wrestling fair against Lehigh, in their first dual meet against a ranked opponent?
Well it depends on your perspective but the young Nittany Lions team fought hard and they ended up victorious in a back and forth dual against Lehigh, 23-16. So I’d say they did pretty darn well.
The dual started out at 125 where the carousel of new faces continued with Jake Campbell making his Penn State debut. And it probably didn’t end exactly how Campbell would have wanted as he lost a major decision against a ranked opponent 11-3 (No. 14 Jaret Lane) and Lehigh jumped out to an early 4-0 lead.
There was a lot of chatter prior to this dual that Roman Bravo-Young would not be able to go for the second consecutive match due to the flu. Thankfully, he appeared fully recovered and showed no signs of fatigue as he earned a major decision 19-7 to knot the dual at 4-4.
Next up was Nick Lee at 141 and he continued to look impressive with a 13-6 decision and the Nittany Lions snagged their first lead of the afternoon 7-4. And it wasn’t just another win for Lee, the win today gave him his 100th victory as a Penn State Wrestler. Things were starting to look a little better for the Nittany Lions, however a little bit of drama was about to unfold.
And when Beau Bartlett toes the line, the last thing you and your heart need is more drama. Outside of a major decision against a Sacred Heart grappler, Bartlett has won matches 1-0 in regulation, 3-1 in SV-1, and 4-3 in TB-1. I think I might need some high blood pressure medicine just for watching his matches.
Well, after allowing an escape and a takedown, Bartlett trailed 6-5 late in the third period. And miraculously he snuck out of his opponent’s clutches just as time expired to tie the match 6-6 and head into sudden victory. Except the referee didn’t see it that way. And after a coaches challenge, the referee again didn’t see it that way and the match ended with Beau on the wrong side of a 6-5 decision. Lehigh 7 Penn State 7. *Sigh*
Moving on.
Tony Negron then got the nod at 157 against No. 10 Josh Humphreys. Negron actually lead the match 2-1 after the first period, but it also wasn’t his day as he fell in a very hard fought 5-4 decision. And for the second consecutive dual match, Penn State was trailing going into the intermission as Lehigh held a 10-7 lead.
Creighton Edsell again came up clutch for the Nittany Lions in pulling out a gutsy 2-1 decision and Penn State tied the dual 10-10. Carter Starocci then sprinkled in a can of whoop ass and a side of fries with a major decision of his own to extend Penn State’s lead to 14-10.
Ladies and gentlemen, meet Donovon Ball. His Penn State career has mainly been wrestling unattached in tournaments and invitationals. But lately, he’s had to fill some fairly large shoes by filling in for Aaron Brooks in the last two duals. And all he has done is gone 2-0 and awarded the Nittany Lions six much needed points. After Ball’s match the dual then stood at 17-10 in favor of Penn State.
#donovonballforgovernor
And if Ball’s win was big then Max Dean’s pin late in the first period was huge! Dean slammed the door shut on Lehigh and Penn State owned a commanding 23-10 lead.
How everything unfolded on Sunday felt oddly the same as it did on Friday evening. Penn State was down at the break, stormed out in the second half to take a commanding lead, and then forfeited the 285 match because it didn’t matter. Hey, a win is a win, right?
Next up for Penn State are the Collegiate Wrestling Duals in Niceville, FL against Northern Iowa and Cornell on December 20th.
No. 19 Lehigh 16 No. 2 Penn State 23
125 No. 14 Jaret Lane (LH) maj dec over Jake Campbell (PSU) 11-3, Lehigh 4 Penn State 0
133 No. 1 Roman Bravo-Young (PSU) maj dec over Sheldon Seym (LH) 19-7, Lehigh 4 Penn State 4
141 No. 1 Nick Lee (PSU) dec over Connor McGonagle (LH) 13-6, Lehigh 4 Penn State 7
149 Manzona Bryant (LH) dec over No. 20 Beau Bartlett (PSU) 6-5, Lehigh 7 Penn State 7
157 No. 10 Josh Humphreys (LH) dec over Tony Negron (PSU) 5-4, Lehigh 10 Penn State 7
165 Creighton Edsell (PSU) dec over Brian Meyer (LH) 2-1, Lehigh 10 Penn State 10
174 No. 1 Carter Starocci (PSU) maj dec over Jake Logan (LH) 13-3, Lehigh 10 Penn State 14
184 Donovon Ball (PSU) dec over A.J. Burkhart (LH) 5-3, Lehigh 10 Penn State 17
197 No. 4 Max Dean (PSU) fall over J.T. Davis (LH) 2:58, Lehigh 10 Penn State 23
285 PSU forfeit, Lehigh 16 Penn State 23