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Penn State Wrestling: Did we learn anything from the Big Ten Championships?

By Chris Snyder

Penn State's Brady Berge, center, has his hand raised after winning in sudden victory against Iowa's Kaleb Young at 157 pounds during the third session of the Big Ten Wrestling Championships, Sunday, March 6, 2022, at Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska.220306 Big Ten Wr 033 Jpg
Penn State's Brady Berge, center, has his hand raised after winning in sudden victory against Iowa's Kaleb Young at 157 pounds during the third session of the Big Ten Wrestling Championships, Sunday, March 6, 2022, at Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska.220306 Big Ten Wr 033 Jpg /
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Penn State Wrestling
Penn State wrestlers watch a match during the third session of the Big Ten Wrestling Championships, Sunday, March 6, 2022, at Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska.220306 Big Ten Wr 067 Jpg /

Will Penn State finally be competitive at 125 on the national stage?

Last year, the Nittany Lions had their first NCAA qualifier at 125 (Robbie Howard) since 2017. Things were looking bright for both Howard and Penn State as they have struggled to field a competitive wrestler at this weight for many years.

Unfortunately the “curse of 125” bit Penn State in the butt once again as Robbie needed to have offseason surgery on his previously injured shoulder. Thus he would miss the entire 2021-2022 season.

And, in stepped the combination of Baylor Shunk and Jake Campbell for the Nittany Lions. Shunk managed to go 2-2 in his four matches and Campbell faired worse going 0-4 in his matches.

It didn’t look likely that Penn State Wrestling was going to get anything going at 125. That is until Drew Hildebrandt landed on campus and immediately put the Nittany Lions back on the map nationally as they now had a returning All-American and top four finisher from the prior season.

Hildebrandt’s impact on the team was felt immediately as he put together an impressive 8-1 record during the season with two falls and two major decisions. His lone loss on the year came at the hands of No. 1 ranked Nick Suriano in a very close 2-1 match.

Then came the forgettable 2022 Big Ten Championships.

Drawing the No. 2 seed, Hildebrandt received a first-round bye and a quarterfinals match against Northwestern’s Michael DeAugustino.

No problem, right?

Except it was a problem because Hildebrandt lost a surprising match in sudden victory 5-3.

Okay, nobody panic. Drew will just have to win a couple of matches in the wrestle backs and then he’ll have a high finish.

No big deal.

As it turns out following Hildebrandt’s shocking loss to Minnesota’s Patrick McKee, yeah it is a big deal. What is happening?

I went back to re-watch this match and you can clearly see Drew wasn’t 100%. An elite athlete who trains with the very best in the Penn State wrestling room should never be sucking wind after only 30 seconds of a match. Something was wrong with him.

But, whatever was wrong with him, will that affect his performance next week? I don’t exactly have the answer to this. However I feel confident Hildebrandt will be focused on the task at hand and even though the NCAA selection committee slapped him in the face with a No. 16 seed, he’s going to go to work on the field at 125.

Trust me.

Will Penn State finally be competitive at 125 on the national stage?
Answer: Yes

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