No. 1 Penn State Wrestling grades, MVP from throttling of No. 3 Iowa

Tying a bow on Penn State Wrestling’s 19-13 win over Iowa on Friday night by handing out some grades and awarding the MVP of the dual

I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m still trying to get my resting heart rate down to a calm 95 beats per minute after watching the wrestling excitement from this past Friday.

Penn State Wrestling’s 19-13 defeat of the Hawkeyes was their first victory in Iowa City since 2017 and it snapped Iowa’s 29 dual meet winning streak.

So, while we all gather our collective breath before hosting the Buckeyes this coming Friday (2/4) in the Bryce Jordan Center, I thought now would be a good time to take a closer look at the Nittany Lions‘ performance against Iowa.

Here are No. 1 Penn State Wrestling’s grades, the MVP from win over No. 3 Iowa

No. 7 Drew Hildebrandt 9-0 major decision over Jesse Ybarra

Grade: A

Just minutes prior to the start of the dual, the Big Ten Network telecast crew indicated Iowa’s talented freshman, No. 11 ranked Drake Ayala, would not be suiting up for the dual meet. As I previously noted, I had the Hildebrandt/Ayala matchup as one of the eight possible toss-up matches in the dual meet.

So as it stood, Hildebrandt would be leading off the highly anticipated dual against Iowa’s third-string grappler at 125. And it was a perfect opportunity for Cael Sanderson and his team to get on the board early, while hopefully tacking on some bonus points.

Which is exactly what Hildebrandt was able to do.

After feeling out his opponent for the first period, Drew then went on the attack and put together an almost perfectly wrestled match. Late in the third period Drew was up 4-0 with the riding point already secured, and from the top position, he was able to turn Ybarra, secure four near-fall points, win the match by a major decision, and get the night started right for Penn State Wrestling!