Penn State Wrestling: Nittany Lions skewer Rider 37-3 in blowout win

The Nittany Lions completely humble an overmatched Rider squad 37-3 on Friday evening in the CURE Arena

Fresh off their drubbing of all comers in the Black Knight Open and fresh off the incredible action in the 2022 NWCA All-Star Classic, the Nittany Lions were back in action Friday evening against the Rider Broncs in Trenton, NJ.

And let’s just say things didn’t go too smoothly for Rider as Penn State Wrestling strapped on their bronco-busting boots and shredded their foes to the tune of 37-3. But hey, give Rider some credit, they tried.

Now onto the action!

The dual started out at 125 and Gary Steen again got the nod for the Nittany Lions. But this time he was able to secure his first ever Penn State wrestling dual meet victory as he clawed his way to a tough 6-4 decision over Tyler Klinsky.

The Nittany Lions were on the board and led the dual 3-0.

RBY then kept the train rolling by breezing through his opponent with a 23-9 major decision. There were large portions of this match where it looked like Roman was bored out of his mind. Koehler didn’t put up much of a fight, because if he did, this would have easily been a technical fall.

After two matches, the Nittany Lions were up 7-0. Moving on.

Beau “The Enigma” Bartlett next hit the mat and he did very little to shake the nickname I’ve bestowed him.

Following a flurry of action late in the first period, Rider’s McKenzie Bell was the first to strike with a surprising takedown. And even more surprising, the same thing happened at the end of the second period as well.

Going into the third period, Bartlett was down 4-2 and he needed to dig deep to get back in the match. Electing to start the final period in the bottom position, Beau quickly worked a reversal of Bell and in the blink of an eye his opponent’s back was on the mat.

The referee awarded the fall and Bartlett went from being down in the match to slamming the door shut on his opponent.

That was an odd match to say the least, but a win is a win, right? The Nittany Lions extended their lead to 13-0 on the evening.

In the first ranked matchup of the evening, Shayne Van Ness had his hands full with Rider’s Quinn Kinner.

And by “hands full”, I mean Van Ness had Kinner wrapped in a cradle for much of the first period. There were times it looked like Shayne was going to end the match in the first, but Kinner fought hard, and Van Ness could only extend his lead to 4-0.

The two grapplers went back and forth in the second period and Kinner cut into the lead 6-5 going into the final period.

But in the end, Shayne Van Ness was simply too much to handle, and he put away Kinner for good with several takedowns in the third period en route to an 11-6 decision.

Couple SVN’s decision win with an injury default a mere nine seconds into the next match and Penn State pushed their lead to 22-0 going into the intermission.

Following the break, both Alex Facundo and Carter Starocci started where they left off the last time they were on a wrestling mat.

Facundo used a super strong third period to win a 13-4 major decision and Carter Starocci continued to look like a man on a mission with a major decision of his own 18-6.

Going into the last three matches of the night, Penn State was pouring it on 30 to nothing.

Donovan Ball then got the nod at 184, which given how the dual was unfolding, there wasn’t much incentive to throw Aaron Brooks out there.

And Ball took advantage of the start as he rolled his way through Rider’s Asa Terrell with an impressive 9-3 decision.

The Nittany Lions continued to light up the scoreboard as it was now 33-0.

In the last ranked matchup of the evening, Max Dean faced a dangerous opponent in Rider’s Ethan Laird.

Laird entered the contest 8-0 and had ranked wins against Arizona State’s Kordell Norfleet and Princeton’s Luke Stout on the young season.

Well, “dangerous” was definitely an apt term for describing Laird. Late into the third period the score was locked at 1-1 with both grapplers only able to earn escapes.

There was a wild scramble at the center of the mat, and it appeared Dean was going to get the late takedown and escape with a “W”. Unfortunately, time expired and Max couldn’t seal the deal. The match was heading to sudden victory.

And early in SV, Laird got penetration and worked in tight with Dean. Ethan threw Max to the mat; however, he did not appear to have full control and Max immediately rolled over for the winning takedown.

At least that’s how it looked to me. But I’m not the one ref’ing the match because the lead referee awarded Laird with the winning takedown. And even after throwing the challenge brick and looking at an official review, the call stood.

Whatever. Penn State lead 33-3 going into the last match of the night.

Greg Kerkvliet did exactly what needed to be done in his match. He grinded Szuba into the Resilite and dominated the match with a major decision to cap the evening.

The Nittany Lions continue on the road as the Lehigh Mountain Hawks are their next host for an afternoon dual meeting this Sunday at 2pm.

No. 1 Penn State 37 Rider 3

125 Gary Steen (PSU) dec. over Tyler Klinsky (RU) 6-4, PSU 3 RU 0
133 No. 1 Roman Bravo-Young (PSU) major dec. over Richie Koehler (RU) 23-9, PSU 7 RU 0
141 No. 9 Beau Bartlett (PSU) fall over McKenzie Bell (RU) 6:08, PSU 13 RU 0
149 No. 20 Shayne Van Ness (PSU) dec. over No. 24 Quinn Kinner (RU) 11-6, PSU 16 RU 0
157 No. 30 Terrell Barraclough (PSU) inj. def. Jake Silverstein (RU) 0:09, PSU 22 RU 0
165 No. 17 Alex Facundo (PSU) major dec. over Hunter Mays (RU) 13-4, PSU 26 RU 0
174 No. 1 Carter Starocci (PSU) major dec. over Shane Reitsma (RU) 18-6, PSU 30 RU 0
184 Donovan Ball (PSU) dec. over Asa Terrell (RU) 9-3, PSU 33 RU 0
197 No. 12 Ethan Laird (RU) dec. over No. 1 Max Dean (PSU) 3-1 SV, PSU 33 RU 3
285 No. 2 Greg Kerkvliet (PSU) major dec. over David Szuba (RU) 11-1, PSU 37 RU 3