Wrestling Topples #2 Ohio State with Record Crowd at BJC

The Penn State Nittany Lions defeated the Ohio State Buckeyes 36-5 in a matchup between the top two teams in the nation. The biggest dual of the season did not disappoint with top five matchups in multiple weight classes, multiple matches going to sudden victory and tiebreakers, as well as a NCAA indoor record attendance of 16,006. 

With the win, Penn State claimed the Big Ten Regular Season Title for the sixth straight season, winning all eight Big Ten duals. With just one dual left for Penn State against Princeton, the Nittany Lions could go into the postseason with nine wrestlers in the top six of their respective weight classes and seven undefeated wrestlers.

Here are some key takeaways from Penn State’s dual against Ohio State:

1. Penn State Goes Perfect in Sudden Victory and Tiebreakers

Three matches couldn’t be decided by three periods and had to go to sudden victory. Both Penn State’s Luke Lilledahl and Cole Mirasola won with takedowns in sudden victory with Lilledahl giving Ohio State’s Nic Bouzakis his first loss and Mirasola getting a big upset over Ohio State’s Nick Feldman.

At 133 pounds, not even a period of sudden victory was enough to decide the match between two undefeated freshmen in Penn State’s Marcus Blaze and Ohio State’s Ben Davino. After Davino got an escape in the first tiebreaker, Blaze was able to spin around for a reversal in the second tiebreaker to beat the Buckeye 3-2.

2. Dan Hodge Favorites Stay Undefeated

Both Penn State’s Mitchell Mesenbrink at 165 pounds and Ohio State’s Jesse Mendez at 141 pounds continued their dominant seasons with bonus point victories. Mesenbrink and Mendez are considered the Dan Hodge Trophy favorites and have been perfect so far. 

Both wrestlers have a long way to go with both the Big Ten Championships and the NCAA Championships full of opponents they have yet to face off against this season. One of those matchups could happen between Mesenbrink and Marcus Blaze’s brother Joey Blaze at the Big Ten Championships in State College.

3. Welsh Wins Against His Former School

Penn State’s Rocco Welsh transferred from Ohio State to Penn State in the offseason and wrestled against his former school for the first time. After being taken down first by Ohio State’s Dylan Fishback, Welsh had a lot of work to do down 4-0 going into the third period. 

Welsh chose bottom to start, got the escape quickly and tied things up at four with a takedown. Fishback still had riding time so Welsh cut him loose in order to try and score one more takedown. With just 10 seconds to go, Welsh secured a second takedown to win the match 7-6. 

4. Buckeyes With Multiple Backups

Fans were expecting top matches at every weight class, but Ohio State was without Ethan Stiles at 149 pounds, Brandon Cannon at 157 and Carson Kharchla at 174 pounds. Cannon has been out for a couple weeks but Stiles and Kharchla were listed as unavailable the day of the dual.

The dual could have been much closer with those Buckeyes but separated them from Nittany Lions with a tech fall from Shayne Van Ness at 149 pounds, a fall from PJ Duke at 157 pounds and a tech fall from Levi Haines at 174 pounds. 

5. Make It 85 Straight

Penn State won its 85th straight dual against Ohio State and could potentially finish the season with 86 straight if they were to beat Princeton and finish the season undefeated. 

If Penn State were to win 14 straight duals next season, they would become the first college program ever to win 100 straight duals in NCAA history, continuing to write their names into the history books.