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Penn State Wrestling: Ranking all 10 NCAA Championship Teams

By Chris Snyder

Mar 19, 2022; Detroit, MI, USA; Penn State wrestler Aaron Brooks helps hold up the trophy after the team takes first place at the NCAA Wrestling Championships at Little Cesars Arena. Mandatory Credit: Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 19, 2022; Detroit, MI, USA; Penn State wrestler Aaron Brooks helps hold up the trophy after the team takes first place at the NCAA Wrestling Championships at Little Cesars Arena. Mandatory Credit: Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports /
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Penn State wrestler Aaron Brooks helps hold up the trophy (Mandatory Credit: Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports) /

No. 3 – 2022

Dual Record: 17-0

Conference Champions: 4
133 Roman Bravo-Young
141 Nick Lee
174 Carter Starocci
197 Max Dean

All-Americans: 6
133 Roman Bravo-Young
141 Nick Lee
174 Carter Starocci
184 Aaron Brooks
197 Max Dean
285 Greg Kerkvliet

NCAA Champions: 5
133 Roman Bravo-Young
141 Nick Lee
174 Carter Starocci
184 Aaron Brooks
197 Max Dean

NCAA Final Team Standings
1. Penn State 131.5
2. Michigan 95.0
3. Iowa 74.0

Dan Hodge Trophy
Roman Bravo-Young – finalist
Carter Starocci – finalist
Aaron Brooks – finalist

“Hold on a second, Chris. You’re telling me the 2022 team which crowned five NCAA champions and won the title by 36.5 points isn’t even in the top two of the best of the best Penn State teams?”

Yeah, I really am.

And I’ll explain later, but I don’t want to take anything away from what the team did this past year.

Going into the 2021-2022 wrestling season, it appeared Iowa was headed towards its second consecutive team title even though their budget for walking canes and cases of Ensure was skyrocketing.

Plus the Michigan lineup was looking strong with Cameron Amine, Logan Massa, Myles Amine, Patrick Brucki, and Mason Parris anchoring the back of the team. Then the Wolverines added a former NCAA champion when they landed Nick Suriano from the college free agency market.

This past year’s Nittany Lion team definitely had holes in its lineup, but it also had four returning NCAA champions, a healthy Greg Kerkvliet, a championship contender at 197 with Max Dean, and one of the best wrestling coaches in the world.

And if I’ve said it once, I’ll say it 1,000 times; Never doubt a team led by Cael Sanderson and his incredible coaching staff.

The 2022 Penn State wrestling team will go down as one of the best in school history. Going five for five on the final night of the NCAA Championships is something very, very few schools have ever done in the modern era of college wrestling.

But let’s be real here, this team still doesn’t hold a candle to what the next two teams were able to do.

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