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Penn State Wrestling regular season awards: Who’s the Nittany Lions’ MVP?

By Chris Snyder

ST LOUIS, MO - MARCH 20: Roman Bravo-Young of Penn State celebrates after beating Dayton Fixx of Oklahoma State in the 133lb weight class in the first-place match during the NCAA Division I Men's Wrestling Championship at the Enterprise Center on March 20, 2021 in St Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images)
ST LOUIS, MO - MARCH 20: Roman Bravo-Young of Penn State celebrates after beating Dayton Fixx of Oklahoma State in the 133lb weight class in the first-place match during the NCAA Division I Men's Wrestling Championship at the Enterprise Center on March 20, 2021 in St Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images) /
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Penn State Wrestling
A general view of the Bryce Jordan Center prior to a match between Penn State Wrestling and Ohio State Buckeyes (Photo by Bryan Bennett/Getty Images) /

Handing out some hardware while taking a look back at the 2021-2022 season for the No. 1 ranked Penn State Wrestling Team

Well that was fun, wasn’t it?

Looking back now on the 2021-2022 regular season for the Nittany Lions, everyone would have to agree the word “entertained” best describes it at the absolute bare minimum.

From the back-to-back grinds against Penn and Lehigh to the domination at the National Collegiate Duals to the madness that was the dual in Iowa City. What a ride.

So as the dust settles on the regular season and with the Big Ten Championships looming a mere week away, let’s reminisce a bit more as we hand out this year’s edition of the Victory Bell Rings Regular Season Wrestling Awards!

That just rolls right of the tongue, doesn’t it?

Without further ado…here they are!

2021-2022 VBR Penn State Wrestling Regular Season Wrestling Awards

Dominant Performance of The Year (Team)

January 21, 2022
Ann Arbor, Michigan
No. 1 Penn State 29 No. 3 Michigan 6

Heading into this epic clash between two of the best wrestling programs in the nation, I have to admit, I genuinely believed Penn State Wrestling might lose. And for good reason.

Michigan’s lineup was stacked from top to bottom with talented and ranked grapplers. They sported the No. 1 ranked wrestler at 125 (Nick Suriano) and seven additional guys ranked in the top 10 at their respective weight class (No. 8 Dylan Ragusin, No. 4 Stevan Micic, No. 10 Cameron Amine, No. 6 Logan Massa, No. 2 Myles Amine, No. 9 Patrick Brucki, No. 2 Mason Parris). It’s a tall order to win against that lineup even for a team as talented as Penn State Wrestling.

And the Wolverines got on the board first thanks to Suriano’s nail-biting 2-1 decision over Drew Hildebrandt. Michigan only needed to win a small handful of toss up matches the rest of the night and they would be the victors.

Only, that didn’t happen.

Far from it!

The Nittany Lions put on a masterful performance the rest of the way as they won eight of the remaining nine matches to completely decimate the Wolverines in a laugher, 29-9.

The “Maize’d Out” crowd at the Crisler Center appeared stunned as they sat on their hands for almost a full hour and 53 minutes. Their lone bright spots being the aforementioned Suriano win and Will Lewan’s decision win over Terrell Barraclough.

Michigan assembled perhaps one of their best teams in recent history and yet they were still 20 points worse than Penn State.

The result of this dual meet is the very definition of “dominant”.

Honorable Mentions:
December 21, 2021
Niceville, Florida – National Collegiate Duals (final)
No. 2 Penn State 29 No. 3 Arizona State 10

February 4, 2022
University Park, Pennsylvania (BJC)
No. 1 Penn State 32 No. 6 Ohio State 7

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