What Else We Learned About Penn State Wrestling at the Big Ten Championships

The Nittany Lions won five individual Big Ten titles and look to build on that performance at the NCAA Championships.

Penn State's Tyler Kasak celebrates a victory over Iowa's Jacori Teemer in their Big Ten dual match at the Bryce Jordan Center in January. | Dan Rainville / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

As Penn State wrestling awaits seeds for next week's NCAA Wrestling Championships, let's pause to assess what else we learned from the Nittany Lions' superb performance at the Big Ten Wrestling Championships. Penn State won six conference titles and qualified its entire lineup for NCAAs, while Cael Sanderson was named Big Ten coach of the year for the eighth time.

Earlier we broke down what victories by Luke Lilledahl and Carter Starocci, and a loss by Greg Kerkvliet, meant for Penn State. Now, let's look at the rest of Penn State's lineup as NCAAs approach.

Analyzing the uneven Braeden Davis

Penn State's 133-pound sophomore occasionally looked sharply tuned at the Big Ten Championships. After losing in the quarterfinals, Davis scored 37 points in two consolation victories. Then he decisioned Maryland's Braxton Brown, a 23-bout winner this season, 9-7 to make the third-place bout.

But Davis (12-5) also made a pair of costly mistakes in his two losses. Davis gave up a takedown very late in the third period to Rutgers' Dylan Shawver, whom he defeated in January, to fall into the consolations. Then he got caught out of position in the third-place bout and was pinned by Ohio State's Nic Bouzakis. Before the tournament, Sanderson said that Davis, who wrestled just 11 regular-season bouts because of injuries, was as healthy as he had been all season. Wrestling six bouts in a weekend is debilitating. Davis will get a needed reset for nationals.

Beau Bartlett's still chasing that elusive title

Bartlett, Penn State's senior at 141 pounds, rebounded from a semifinal loss with a gritty 4-2 win over Ohio State's Jesse Mendez for third place. Neither wrestler expected to be competing next to the final. But Bartlett's win, his second straight over Mendez and third overall, set the stage for a fascinating seed process.

Bartlett entered Big Tens as the unbeaten No. 1 seed and the top-ranked wrestler nationally. Then he sustained a surprising 5-3 semifinal loss to Minnesota's Vance VomBaur. That's the kind of loss Bartlett can avenge. But does he have enough to potentially go through Mendez and/or two-time Big Ten champ Brock Hardy of Nebraska as well? Bartlett said before Big Tens that he was ready to "let it rip." This is his last chance to win a postseason gold medal. Time to do that.

Shayne Van Ness remains a title contender

Van Ness went 4-1 at the conference tournament, scoring major decisions in the consolation rounds to place third. His 13-0 win over Iowa's Kyle Parco in the third-place bout was a study in dominance. Van Ness had three major decisions in the tournament.

His 4-2 semifinal loss to sixth-seeded Kannon Webster of Illinois might have been an anomaly. Van Ness, who defeated Webster 15-4 during the regular season, looked out of sorts in the bout and gave up the winning takedown with 4 seconds left. That's something Van Ness (20-2) can overcome before NCAAs.

Tyler Kasak enters NCAAs on a dominant run

Kasak could have contended for the tournament's MVP award after sweeping the 157-pound bracket with a pin and major decision in the semifinals and final. After pinning Nebraska's Antrell Taylor in the semis, Kasak took it to Ohio State's Brandon Cannon in the final. He nearly pinned Cannon in the third period, taking a seven-point move instead, and scored his 10th bonus-point win of the season.

Kasak entered Big Tens as the nation's top-ranked wrestler according to InterMat but was the No. 2 seed behind Maryland's Ethen Miller. Kasak's only loss this season was his injury default to Miller in February. A concussion caused him to miss two matches. Since then, Kasak is 4-0 with two pins. He's primed to make a run at his first NCAA title.

Mitchell Mesenbrink is human

Penn State's technical fall machine at 165 pounds is the major favorite to win the NCAA title. He scored his nation-leading 16th technical fall of the season over Michigan's Beau Mantanona after giving up his first takedown of the season. Mantanona jumped on Mesenbrink from the first whistle but got caught in the machine thereafter.

No one had been able to slow Mesenbrink's offense until Iowa's Mikey Caliendo gave him a different look in the final. Mesenbrink had scored 71 points in four previous wins over Caliendo. This time, Caliendo scrapped with Mesenbrink, getting him out of his offense. "I like that he fights," Mesenbrink told Big Ten Network after the final. The wrestler who beats Mesenbrink (22-0) will have to fight and score. No easy feat.