Penn State Wrestling’s top 10 dual meets in the Cael Sanderson era
By Chris Snyder
No. 9
January 28, 2022
Iowa City, Iowa
No. 1 Penn State 19, No. 3 Iowa 13
In one of the most anticipated dual meets of the entire 2021-2022 college wrestling season, Penn State Wrestling traveled to Iowa City to take on the Iowa Hawkeyes in what is always going to be “must watch wrestling tv”.
The two powerhouse wrestling programs never disappoint when they go toe to toe on the mat.
Below are some historical stats for both wrestling squads leading into the dual:
Penn State
-Won 24 straight dual meets
-Last loss was at Iowa on 1/31/20 19-17
-Cael Sanderson has a 4-5 record against Iowa (2-3 in Iowa City) as Penn State’s head coach
Iowa
-Won 29 straight dual meets
-Last loss was at Oklahoma State on 2/24/19 27-12
-Tom Brands has a 7-5 record against Penn State (4-2 in Iowa City) as Iowa’s head coach
And this dual meet absolutely lived up to the billing as Penn State Wrestling outlasted their opponents for a thrilling 19-13 defeat over Iowa.
The dual started out at 125 where Drew Hildebrandt got Penn State Wrestling on the board in earning a major decision 9-0 and the Nittany Lions jumped out to a 4-0 lead. Unfortunately for Iowa their talented youngster Drake Ayala (ranked No. 11) was unable to go in the dual.
Next up was a thrilling match between Roman Bravo-Young and Austin DeSanto where RBY ultimately took the win in a 3-2 decision. But it certainly wasn’t easy going as DeSanto was the aggressor throughout the majority of the match. Bravo-Young didn’t look like he was 100% but he fought out of a number of difficult situations and did just enough to further push Penn State’s lead to 7-0 on the night.
And in the first of two NCAA finals matchups from the prior year it was Nick Lee going up against Jaydin Eierman. Did the finals rematch disappoint?
Heck no!
After Eierman forced sudden victory with an incredible late takedown in the third period, thus erasing Lee’s riding time advantage. Nick then wasted little time in running around his opponent to get a takedown of his own and win the match!
That looked somewhat familiar.
Now, where did I see that before?
From the result of this epic match, the Nittany Lions raced out to a 10-0 lead.
Iowa was then able to get on the board in the next two matches as Beau Bartlett lost a 4-1 decision and Terrell Barraclough lost a really tough 2-0 decision. Going into halftime Penn State lead the dual meet 10-6.
Coming out of the intermission, Iowa continued to chip away at the Nittany Lions’ lead with Brady Berge falling in a major decision 10-2. With only four matches remaining in the dual meet the score was tied 10-10.
Oh boy.
Next up on the night was the second NCAA finals matchup with Carter Starocci and Michael Kemerer toeing the line. How would this matchup compare to the Lee and Eierman matchup?
Would you believe it was even more incredible?
Carter Starocci was able to gut out an amazing 2-1 decision in TB-2 as he rode Kemerer for the final 30 seconds of the match in a somewhat controversial match. Well, at least according to the Iowa crowd. Because from my seat and from the announcer’s standpoint, the result of the match was clear.
The massive win broke the tie in the dual meet and Penn State had a 13-10 lead going into the final three matches of the night.
Aaron Brooks was the next hammer up for Penn State and although he wasn’t able to secure some much-needed bonus points, he was able to cruise to an 8-3 decision. The dual meet was still up in the air with only two matches remaining and the Nittany Lions clinging to a 16-10 lead over Iowa.
Oh, did I say “clinging to a lead”? Haha! I was just kidding!
Because Max Dean closed out the third period with a ferocious effort in winning his match with an 8-3 decision and slamming Iowa’s chances to extend their dual meet winning streak to 30.
The win for Dean gave the Nittany Lions a 19-10 advantage with one final match remaining.
The night didn’t end exactly how Penn State fans would have liked as Greg Kerkvliet fell in a decision 7-2. Iowa may have won the fight at heavyweight, but they didn’t win the battle.