Penn State Wrestling: Revisiting the best matches of 2021-2022 season
By Chris Snyder
Match No. 2
Date: 02/06/2022
No. 7 Nebraska vs. No. 1 Penn State
No. 1 Aaron Brooks (PSU) major dec. over No. 9 Taylor Venz (NEB) 14-4
Taylor Venz just wrapped up his sixth and final season this past year at the 2022 NCAA Wrestling Championships, all of which wrestling for Mark Manning and Nebraska.
Venz finished his decorated Cornhuskers career by compiling a career record of 134-45, qualified for four NCAA Championships, and was an All-American his freshman year (2018) by finishing in fourth place at 184. His career win total puts Taylor in the top five for all-time wins in Nebraska history.
Furthermore, in the three other years Venz did not earn All-American honors he finished in the round of 12. So he was knocking on the door to possibly being a two, three, or possibly even a four-time All-American.
Not too shabby considering the Cornhuskers are one of the most storied programs in college wrestling with almost 100 years of history under their belt.
Here’s why I’m laying all of these facts on the table. Taylor Venz is a seasoned veteran of college wrestling, he’s as talented as they come at the 184 weight class, and he has the accolades and proof to back it up. Oh, and there is one other small item to note.
Venz is the only wrestler in college to beat Aaron Brooks in a regular season dual meet match. This happened back in Brooks’ freshman year (2020) as Venz defeated Aaron in a 9-5 decision in Lincoln, NE.
Now onto the match.
The Nittany Lions were clinging to a 14-10 lead heading into the ranked matchup at 184 between Venz and Brooks, and for a Penn State team looking to extend their dual meet winning streak to 27 – without the services of Brady Berge, Carter Starocci, and Max Dean – then Aaron would need to come out firing.
He did just that.
Brooks went on the offensive in the first period by finishing a takedown one minute into the match. After cutting Venz loose, Aaron again went on the attack and landed his second takedown of the period.
Heading into the second period, Brooks had a 4-1 lead and had built up a large riding time lead in the process.
The second period saw a flurry of action following Venz’s early escape to make the score 4-2 in favor of Brooks.
Aaron went right back on the offensive by notching his third takedown of the match and the score stood at 6-3 after Brooks cut loose Venz for the escape. All of the Penn State faithful in Rec Hall saw just how one-sided this match was shaping up to be.
Venz knew it as well, because he got slapped with a stall warning midway through the second period. Next, Brooks landed his fourth and fifth takedowns of the match and the score stood at 10-4 going into the final period.
Aaron, sensing a massive advantage on his feet, chose to start the third period in neutral. With Venz on the defensive, Brooks pounced and locked in his sixth and final takedown of the match. Mercifully the clock hit triple zeros and Brooks piled up six takedowns, a stall point, and the riding time bonus to humiliate a Nebraska all-time great with the major decision, 14-4.
Wow.