Big Ten Power Rankings: Where does Penn State Wrestling stand heading into conference play

Dual Rank: 1
Record: 4-0
Ranked Wrestlers: 9
133 No. 1 Roman Bravo-Young
141 No. 5 Beau Bartlett
149 No. 17 Shayne Van Ness
157 No. 28 Terrell Barraclough
165 No. 14 Alex Facundo
174 No. 1 Carter Starocci
184 No. 1 Aaron Brooks
197 No. 5 Max Dean
285 No. 1 Greg Kerkvliet

The Nittany Lions kicked off the year by wiping the floor with Lock Haven 44-3 in the friendly confines of Rec Hall. Then Penn State hopped in a van and drove to West Point for the Black Knight Open where they had 11 place finishers which included two third place finishers, three runner-ups, and five champions crowned.

Penn State Wrestling continued its road trek with a dual win against Rider (37-3) in Trenton and then a tight contest against No. 21 Lehigh (24-12). Both duals had some incredible action and coincidentally both duals saw Penn State lose a match at 197.

But no need to worry because Max Dean got back on track in the Oregon State dual by handing No. 10 Tanner Harvey a big fat “L” on the mat. Oh, and Penn State cruised to 31-3 win over No. 25 Oregon State in the process.

With the additions of Shayne Van Ness and Alex Facundo to the lineup, along with Beau Bartlett’s success at 141 this year, the wrestling machine that is the Penn State Nittany Lions just continues to roll.

Roman Bravo-Young has looked amazing (as always), Terrell Barraclough appears to maybe have taken a step forward, Carter Starocci and Aaron Brooks look great, and Greg Kerkvliet looks like a man possessed. And my only guess is that he’s possessed to utterly embarrass every single opponent he faces. Which isn’t great news for everyone else.

Next up for Penn State is a trip down to New Orleans to take part in the 2022 Collegiate National Duals on December 19th and 20th.