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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
Greg Kerkvliet of the Penn State Nittany Lions Photo by Bryan Bennett/Getty Images) /

Dominant Performance of The Year (Individual)

January 21, 2022
Ann Arbor, Michigan
No. 4 Greg Kerkvliet (Penn State) decision over No. 2 Mason Parris (Michigan), 8-5

Let’s stay in Ann Arbor a bit more as we hand out this year’s award for most dominant performance by an individual wrestler.

Before we revisit this match, here are some stats about Michigan’s ultra-talented heavyweight leading up to the match. Let’s strip out all match results against Gable Steveson because there’s not a human on the planet who can beat him.

Mason Parris
2019-2020: 28-0 (64% bonus percentage)
2021: 12-0 (100% bonus percentage)
2021-2022: 7-0 (100% bonus percentage)

Prior to this matchup, the last time Mason Parris lost to anyone other than Gable Steveson was way back on March 21, 2019. And the last time he beat someone and didn’t earn bonus points was on March 7, 2020.

It had been almost a full two years since Mason Parris had his hand raised at the end of a match in which he didn’t utterly humiliate his opponent. And Kerkvliet has a history with Parris as the two locked horns in last year’s Big Ten Championships.

However, Parris walked through Kerkvliet in this matchup by winning a major decision 11-3. So it wasn’t close at all.

Now fast forward to their mighty clash from this season.

The match started out back and forth as both wrestlers tried to feel each other out. But you could tell Kerkvliet was on the prowl.

And with two minutes already expired in the first period one of Kerk Kong’s attacks finally landed on Parris’ left leg. But instead of fighting from the top position to grind out some riding time, Greg cut Parris loose.

Yes, you did read that correctly. Greg Kerkvliet landed a takedown on one of the most dominant wrestlers in college and he just let him up. The message seemed clear. Like Kerkvliet was saying, “Nah man, I’ll catch you again.”.

And he did, 30 seconds later. Parris appeared to be shell-shocked following the second “takedown and cut loose” tactic from Kerk.

The match continued to be one-sided as Greg landed the third takedown on Mason late in the third period. He then grinded Parris from the top position to seal the riding time point and the match 8-5.

The Crisler Crowd was so quiet you could hear a feather drop on a pillow.

Less than a year ago Kerkvliet couldn’t sniff Parris. And now he was the one to have his hand raised at the end in a match that wasn’t nearly as close as the final score.

Honorable Mentions:
November 18, 2021
University Park, Pennsylvania
No. 1 Roman Bravo-Young (Penn State Wrestling) technical fall over Dominic Carone (Army), 26-11
12 takedowns

February 20, 2022
University Park, Pennsylvania
No. 1 Roman Bravo-Young (Penn State Wrestling) technical fall over Richie Koehler (Rider), 26-11
13 takedowns

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