Penn State getting five in title bouts
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TULSA, Okla. -- With a semifinal tour de force Friday night that is becoming more the norm than exception, the Penn State wrestling team has all but locked up a second consecutive NCAA championship, 10th under coach Cael Sanderson and 11th in program history.
For the second year in a row, Penn State will be trying to crown five champions as it continues to dominate the 2023 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships at the BOK Center in Tulsa.
Roman Bravo-Young (133), Levi Haines (157), Carter Starocci (174), Aaron Brooks (184) and Greg Kerkvliet (285) all won their semifinal bouts. Beau Bartlett (141) and Shayne Van Ness (149) both fell in the finals but are still alive for third-place finishes. Max Dean (197) is vying for a seventh-place finish. All told, though, the Nittany Lions will return home with eight All-Americans.
Penn State didn't win the championship in Friday's quarterfinal round, but it did make some indelible memories. The Nittany Lions went 7-0 in the round and 2-0 in the consolation bracket to stretch its lead to 30 points over Iowa, 78-48, at the end of Session 3.
There were comebacks, near-misses, last-second takedowns and wins galore in one of the more memorable sessions for one team in recent NCAA tournament history.
Bravo-Young took the mat for his semifinal bout with Michael McGee of Arizona State with the arena still buzzing over Purdue's Matt Ramos pinning three-time NCAA championship Spencer Lee of Iowa, Lee's first loss since March 9, 2019.
From that point on, anyone who was considered even the slightest favorite was officially on upset alert, because they had just seen that anything is possible in the NCAA tournament.
McGee and Bravo-Young wrestled through the first period scoreless, each having just missed scoring a takedown. McGee chose bottom to start the second and he reversed Bravo-Young 30 seconds in. Bravo-Young escaped with 38 seconds left and the match went into the third with McGee up, 2-1.
Bravo-Young chose bottom to start the third and escaped to tie the match. He then converted on rollicking takedown, but McGee quickly escaped. McGee had riding time and regulation ended tied at 4-4. RBY was the aggressor in sudden victory and converted a single 20 seconds in for the 6-4 win, the 100th of his career.
In the finals, he will face Cornell's Vito Arujau, an 11-3 winner over Oklahoma State's Daton Fix. It will be RBY's last 7 minutes of his career.
"It's surreal. There have been ups and downs, just a challenge. You know, you have to keep pushing. It's hard when people expect you to win all the time, but I think it's not done yet, but I think it's been a good career so far," he said.
Penn State's undefeated streak ended at 141, as Beau Bartlett fell to Northern Colorado's Andrew Alirez, 6-2. Alirez scored takedowns in the first and second, added an escape and a point for riding time, as Bartlett was never able to get his offense untracked.
The Nittany Lions dropped another semifinal bout but it came to an all-time NCAA great. Van Ness pushed Yianni Diakomihalis before the three-time NCAA champ rallied late for an 8-3 win. Van Ness took a 3-1 lead in the third but the Cornell wrestler escaped scored a takedown and tacked on four nearfall points for the win.
Haines pulled Penn State's record to 2-2 in the semifinals as the true freshman repeated his Big Ten final win over Nebraska's Peyton Robb with a 5-3 win.
After a scoreless first, Robb escaped to start the second. Haines, though, was able to convert on a single to briefly take a lead before Robb escaped to tie it at 2-2. Haines took bottom to start the third and escaped in 20 seconds. The two sparred for most of the next minute before Haines scored a slick takedown with 32 seconds left as he slipped in a leg from the neutral position with Robb whizzering his arm. Robb escaped late but it was too little too late.
Haines will face 2021 champion Austin O'Connor of North Carolina in tonight's final.
"A step closer to my goal," Haines said. "My goal has always been to be a national champ, and you only get four chances to do that. So, I came out and that's what we're trying to do this weekend."
Starocci gave Penn State its third finalist with a measured but dominating 6-0 win over Chris Foca of Cornell. The two-time champ won his 51st straight match by scoring takedowns in the first and third, an escape in the second and another point for 2:30 in riding time advantage.
In tonight's final, Starocci will face Nebraska's Mikey Labriola. Starocci is 3-0 all-time against the Husker.
"I look forward to these moments," Starocci said "I believe God created me to be a warrior, and there is nothing I would rather do than be here right now. There is nothing else going through my mind, but crushing the guy in front of me. So, it kinda makes it easy."
Brooks posted a win over North Carolina State's Trent Hidlay for the third straight year. Like last year, this one came in the semifinals. Brooks used two first period takedowns to establish a lead and then defended with inpenetrable baseline defense as he notched a 6-3 win. The two-time champion will look for his third against Northern Iowa's Parker Keckeisen, who Brooks has never lost to.
After giving up an early takedown to Wyatt Hendrickson of the Air Force, Kerkvliet escaped, reversed him in the second and earned a riding time point for a 4-2 win. He will meet Michigan's Mason Parris, who he has lost to twice this year, in the final.
Murin will medal
Iowa's Max Murin, a Central Cambria graduate, will be an All-American for the second time after going 2-1 in Friday's action at the NCAA Wrestling Championships.
Murin started the day off in the 149-pound quarterfinals with an 8-7 loss to Cornell's Yianni Diakomihalis, a 3-time NCAA champion who will be going for his fourth this evening.
Murin rebounded with wins in the consolation rounds – one over Michigan's Chance Lamer, 3-2, and the other a 3-1 sudden victory win over Minnesota's Michael Blockhus.
Murin will wrestle in the consolation semifinals this morning. He can get as high as third place and as low as sixth place for the tournament.