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No. 1 Penn State Wrestling Routs Rutgers for 65th Straight Win

The Nittany Lions move to 9-0 with an impressive Big Ten victory as showdown with No. 2 Iowa looms.

Mark Wogenrich

Penn State Nittany Lions wrestler Mitchell Mesenbrink enters the arena before his match with Iowa State Cyclones David Carr at the 2024 NCAA Wrestling Championships.
Penn State Nittany Lions wrestler Mitchell Mesenbrink enters the arena before his match with Iowa State Cyclones David Carr at the 2024 NCAA Wrestling Championships. / Reese Strickland-Imagn Images

The top-ranked Penn State wrestling team continued to buzzsaw its way through the Big Ten on Friday, routing Rutgers 35-3 in Piscataway. Penn State entertained 8,057 fans, the second-largest crowd for a wrestling match at Jersey Mike's Arena, with its 65th consecutive duals victory that included some entertaining technical falls.

The Nittany Lions (9-0) scored four technicals, including the 11th this season by top-ranked Mitchell Mesenbrink (165 pounds). Redshirt freshman Josh Barr (197) produced the signature win, scoring seven (!) takedowns in the third period for a 22-6 win. Barr scored six more takedowns in the third than Rutgers (one) did the entire match.

"What Josh did, that was sweet," Mesenbrink told Big Ten Network after the match.

Penn State has outscored its nine duals opponents 389-19 this season. On Friday, it held a 24-1 takedown edge over Rutgers, winning nine of 10 bouts. The win set the stage for No. 2 Iowa's visit to the Bryce Jordan Center on Jan. 31.

125: The match opened with the first of two tossups, as Luke Lilledahl, Penn State's unbeaten freshman, met Rutgers fifth-year senior Dean Peterson. Lilledahl (now 10-1) has looked so polished this season, including in a 4-2 win last week over then-No. 6 Caleb Smith of Nebraska, but Peterson caught the edge Friday. Tied 1-1 in the third, Peterson converted Rutgers' only takedown of the match in a 4-1 victory. Peterson, ranked 19th, improved to 5-1 vs. ranked opponents.

133: Seventh-ranked Braeden Davis (7-2) of Penn State sought a bounceback after his first loss to Nebraska's Jacob Van Dee. Davis got that with a 2-1 decision over Rutgers' Dylan Shawver. Davis decided the duel of returning Big Ten champions (Davis at 125, Shawver at 133) by riding Shawver for nearly the entire second period. That riding-time point was the difference in a bout with only escapes otherwise.

141: Penn State's third-ranked Beau Bartlett had little trouble with 14th-ranked Joseph Olivieri, hitting takedowns in the first and second periods for a 7-2 win. Bartlett (12-0) has beaten top-20 opponents in three of his last four matches.

149: No. 4 Shayne Van Ness wrestled a get-right bout after falling to Nebraska's Ridge Lovett 10-2. Instead of a ranked opponent in senior Andrew Clark, Van Ness faced freshman Alex Nini, who is 9-5 wrestling primarily in tournaments. Van Ness (11-1) took advantage with a 17-2 technical fall, his third of the season.

157: Penn State's No. 3 Tyler Kasak (11-0) remained unbeaten with a 4-0 decision over Conner Harer, another freshman in the Scarlet Knights' lineup. Kasak scored a takedown within the first 20 seconds and then pretty much rode out the win. He finished the bout with 3:42 in riding time, underscoring just how dominant Kasak can be from the top position.

165: Top-ranked Mitchell Mesenbrink of Penn State has wrestled 11 opponents this season and scored technical falls against all of them. It's an astonishing success rate. On Friday, however, Mesenbrink (13-0) finally got tested. He still produced a technical fall but needed 6:30 to do it. Mesenbrink defeated No. 26 Anthony White 19-3 but went into the final minute of a bout for the first time this season.

174: Second-ranked Levi Haines (11-1) took some hustle from Rutgers' Jackson Turley, who escaped late in the third to cut the defending national champ's lead to 4-2. Haines got a first-period takedown but had to dodge a few tough spots to hold the lead. He wasn't truly in danger, and had two good scoring chances late in the third, in a good 6-minute bout. Haines won 5-2 with a riding-time point.

184: Carter Starocci continued his drive for five with his 12th bonus-point victory in as many matches this season. Even when opponents try to slow his pace, as Rutgers' Shane Cartagena-Walsh did, Starocci either upsets their pace our counters mistakes. He did both in a 17-2 technical fall that included four stalling calls on Cartagena-Walsh.

197: Fourth-ranked Josh Barr, the Penn State redshirt freshman who exploded onto the national scene this season, exploded against 16th-ranked John Poznanski in the third period. After two quietly scoreless periods, Barr scored seven takedowns in the third for a 22-6 technicall fall. Barr essentially did up-downs with Poznanski, scoring four takedowns in under 90 seconds. He pushed a relentless third-period pace in improving to 10-0 this season and 24-0 at Penn Sate.

285: Second-ranked Greg Kerkvliet of Penn State finished the match with a perfunctory 2-0 win over No. 7 Yaraslau Slavikouski. Kerkvliet scored an escape and was awarded a stalling point in the third when Slavikouski fled the mat during a near-takedown. Kerkvliet (12-0) extended his personal win streak to 32 bouts.

Penn State 35, Rutgers 3

125: No. 19 Dean Peterson (R) dec. No. 6 Luke Lilledahl 4-1

133: No. 7 Braeden Davis (PSU) dec. No. 9 Dylan Shawver 2-1

141: No. 3 Beau Bartlett (PSU) dec. No. 14 Joseph Olivieri 7-3

149: No. 4 Shayne Van Ness (PSU) tech. fall Alex Nini 17-2 in 5:26

157: No. 3 Tyler Kasak (PSU) dec. No. 31 Conner Harer 4-0

165: No. 1 Mitchell Mesenbrink (PSU) tech. fall No. 26 Anthony White 19-3 in 6:30

174: No. 2 Levi Haines (PSU) dec. No. 22 Jackson Turley 5-2

184: No. 1 Carter Starocci (PSU) tech. fall No. 18 Shane Cartagena-Walsh 17-2

197: No. 4 Josh Barr (PSU) tech. fall No. 16. John Poznanski 22-6

285: No. 2 Greg Kerkvliet (PSU) dec. No. 7 Yaraslau Slavikouski 2-0

Up Next

Penn State returns home for the Big Ten's match of the season, when it hosts No. 2 Iowa at the Bryce Jordan Center. The match, set for 7 p.m. ET on Jan. 31, will be televised by Big Ten Network.

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Mark Wogenrich
MARK WOGENRICH

Mark Wogenrich is Editor and Publisher of AllPennState, the site for Penn State news on SI's FanNation Network. He has covered Penn State sports for more than two decades across three coaching staffs and three Rose Bowls.

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