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By Andy Elder
For the Mirror
For the biggest part of the last two seasons, Iowa has systematically collected awards and accolades it routinely claimed in its heyday.
The Hawkeyes won the past two Big Ten Championship trophies, as well as the NCAA championship in 2021.
In mid-January, however, Penn State shoved its way back to the top of the national rankings. In late February, the Nittany Lions took back the Big Ten dual meet championship. Here in early March, Penn State appears poised to snatch back from Iowa the Big Ten tournament team trophy.
While Michigan, Nebraska or another dark horse could emerge, the team race looks like it will come down to the Nittany Lions and Hawkeyes. That drama will play out Saturday and Sunday at Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska.
"I think the team's excited and they continued to improve as the season went along. As we've seen, they kind of step up for the bigger matches," coach Cael Sanderson said via Zoom at the team's media day earlier this week.
"I think we're ready to wrestle, but we'll find out this weekend. It's great competition, as everybody knows, and it's a new day. So, everything up to this point is all preparation."
That preparation yielded a host of favorable pre-seeds for most of the 10 Nittany Lions. That should position a majority of the team for deep runs in the tournament. Here's a look at Penn State's 10-man contingent with weight and seed in parentheses:
n Drew Hildebrandt (125, 2), Roman Bravo-Young (133, 1), Nick Lee (141, 1), Beau Bartlett (149, 7), Brady Berge (157, 10), Creighton Edsell (165, 10), Carter Starocci (174, 1), Aaron Brooks (184, 1), Max Dean (197, 2), Greg Kerkvliet (285, 3).
Part of the yearly challenge of the Big Ten tournament is the eventuality of rematches with conference foes. As witnessed in last year's NCAA finals, Penn State has a penchant for winning those repeats. However, having faced an opponent previously is a plus and a minus.
"I think it depends on who you're wrestling and the style matchup," Bravo-Young said. "You want to wrestle them to feel them out, but at the same time you don't want them to feel your stuff. It just depends on the person. For me, I don't care."
Brooks was of a like mind on rematches.
"It really does go both ways," he said. "If I wrestle someone early in the season, I get the feel for them. They also get the feel for me. If I haven't seen a guy earlier in the season, I know he might not expect things that someone else will expect. I guess there's pros and cons to it."
Some of those rematches could weigh heavily in the team race. If the seeds hold, the Nittany Lions and Hawkeyes could meet a number of times.
As much as the performances of the individuals add up to team success. Sanderson said that he thinks individuals should remove themselves from the equation in a team setting.
"I think you're going to get your best individual performance and your best mindset if you're thinking less about yourself, more about the team," he said. "Your responsibility is just to do the best you can with the time you're allotted. It's not about winning and losing. It's more about just competing with some enthusiasm and some excitement, then we should be fine as a team."
Sanderson pointed to a few specific requirements that are needed to win a team title.
"I think it's just a team effort. You need 10 guys scoring points and obviously bonus points are huge all the time," he said. "We've just got to go wrestle with a little bit of a smile on our face. We shouldn't be smiling; that'd be weird. But just enjoy being out there and just competing and let's be the best we can be and let's get excited about the opportunity that we have because it's pretty cool. Winning a Big Ten championship is a big deal. It's something that's definitely worth fighting for."