How Penn State Wrestling’s National Championship stacks up, according to TrueTan Wrestling
By Chris Snyder
Penn State Wrestling’s Performance
VBR – Now moving on to the Penn State Nittany Lions. Going into the finals on Saturday night, what percentage chance did you think they had to win all five of their finals matches?
TTW – I had a feeling they could go five for five. I mean Penn State has done some things in this decade that might never happen again.
In all reality, they were all favored except Aaron Brooks, but we all knew Aaron had the skills to reverse that Big Ten defeat. With that said I knew it would not be easy. Most of those matches were going to come down to razor-thin margins.
RBY vs Fix we all knew that was going to be close. Max Dean came back super late on Warner in the regular season duel and Warner looked on fire all tournament. Champ vs Champ at 174 (Mekhi Lewis vs Carter Starocci) and as I said 184 was an unfavorable match.
However, we all know Cael’s dudes win in those thin, thin, THIN margins year over year in those semi-finals and finals.
VBR – News came out from Cael Sanderson following the conclusion of the NCAA’s indicating it didn’t look good that Greg Kerkvliet could wrestle the weekend portion of the tournament due to a lower body injury. Sanderson also told reporters Carter Starocci was wrestling with a broken hand which would eventually require surgery from the end of January on. Putting your headgear back on for this one as a former wrestler, walk me through what it’s like to wrestle when injured. And how amazing of a feat is it that Kerk finished 4th and Starocci won his second straight NCAA title?
TTW – First off, the feat is incredible especially to wrestle at the levels these two guys did and doing it for themselves and the team. I am sure they will rest and recover this offseason and Penn State has great care, so they were in good hands.
To speak further on the matter I will share a life lesson I heard as an athlete. Obviously, all injuries are different, but once you are at the level of Kerk and Starocci, a 60% or 70% Starocci is still a pretty dang good wrestler and it showed in bunches this weekend. In wrestling, you also learn to manage your body to the injury and in some cases, you can come out of it better in more unique spots.
VBR – Is Roman Bravo-Young coming back? Sorry, I had to ask you this.
TTW – I am assuming he is either going to start training freestyle or MMA at Penn State. So if he is staying in Happy Valley for a while, might as well run in back one more year while he can.
VBR – And final question before we get you out of here so you can get back to making awesome content on YouTube. What Roman Bravo-Young, Nick Lee, Carter Starocci, Aaron Brooks, and Max Dean did on Saturday night was mind blowing. From RBY taking the fight to Daton Fix, to Nick Lee surviving early danger and then putting on a technical masterpiece, to Carter Starocci outlasting Mekhi Lewis, to Aaron Brooks looking brilliant and avenging his prior loss to Myles Amine, and then to Max Dean’s win and incredible moment with his brother Gabe and the rest of his family.
So, where would you rate this Penn State team on the list of Nittany Lion teams under Cael Sanderson?
TTW – This is a great question.
It is hard to think of a team passing a Taylor and Ruth-led squad, but those teams never went five for five. However they had some deeper teams in those all-American rounds.
I think I put this year’s team right behind that first five for five Penn State squad in 2017. I know all of these guys will become legends, but it is hard to push them past a team with Mark Hall, Zain Retherford, Bo Nickal, Vincenzo Joseph, and Jason Nolf. That team also had a flashy factor to them and you felt like some of them could score at will.
I am excited to see what this group will bring us in the future. Best of luck to the Penn State seniors leaving!
VBR – Once again Tanner, thank you for stopping by and answering my incredibly long-winded questions. Keep the great YouTube content coming!
TTW – Thank you for the awesome opportunity!
As I mentioned before, check out and subscribe to TrueTan Wrestling on YouTube. It’s a wealth of wrestling content and Tanner does a fantastic job with the topics, production, and content!