By Andy Stine

astine@altoonamirror.com

Penn State wrestling coach Cael Sanderson has never wanted to talk about whether the 2023-24 edition of the Nittany Lions was his best team in his storied career. The evidence is certainly there to support that it might be the best team in NCAA wrestling history.

For starters, the Lions broke the NCAA Championships record for team points with 172.5 points, beating the 1997 Iowa Hawkeyes’ record of 170 points. They also beat second place Cornell by a total of 100 points.

You read that right. A 3-digit number. One hundred. In other words, Cornell could have repeated all the matches they won over the three days, and Penn State still would have won by a comfortable margin.

That’s ridiculous.

All of us could debate if this PSU team was the best team ever until we were as blue in the face as the Nittany Lion singlets. The first NCAA Championships were held in 1928. None of us were here to know the quality of college wrestling in those early years, unless you’re over 100 years old now.

What is important is PSU fans enjoy the heck out of this run. The Lions are at 11 national championships in 13 years under Sanderson, and there’s no reason to believe that it could end any time soon.

Yeah, the Lions will certainly miss four-time national champion Aaron Brooks. He’ll join the likes of David Taylor, Bo Nickal, and all the other fan favorites that have come through in the last decade and a half. Brooks lost a total of three matches in his entire college career.

Carter Starocci showed just how talented he really is, even though he clearly was not 100 percent throughout the weekend. He still has another year of eligibility thanks to the COVID-19 season, but like Brooks, Saturday was also his fourth title. What more does Starocci have to prove in a college career?

Heavyweight Greg Kerkvliet just picked up his long-awaited first title. He’s in the same boat as Starocci. He has another year if he wants it. We’ll see what he decides. Runner-up Beau Bartlett is also in the same position.

Levi Haines is the only national champion guaranteed to come back. With the way he dominated through nationals, and only dropping one match so far in his first two seasons, there’s a good chance Saturday’s trip to the top of the podium won’t be Haines’ last time at the top.

Freshman Mitchell Mesenbrink came within a point of a national championship on Saturday. He still has three seasons of eligibility. Mesenbrink would be a strong candidate to win next season, if not the two seasons after that. The kid is too talented not to.

The Lions will say goodbye and thank you to Bernie Truax, who transferred in from Cal Poly for his final season as a college wrestler. Truax finished in fifth place on Saturday. He talked frequently all season how coming to State College was the best thing he could have done to finish out his college days.

Tyler Kasak took over for the injured Shayne Van Ness early in the season, and he ended up getting third place this weekend. It will be interesting to see what they decide for Kasak next season. It would be a good bet that he will redshirt, which was probably the original plan for this year.

The only two wrestlers that did not become an All-American this weekend were the two lightweights in true freshman sensation Braeden Davis, and Aaron Nagao. Nagao was an All-American last season at Minnesota, but him and Davis were one match short of reaching that status this weekend. Both will be back as staples in the lower part of the lineup.

And of course, there will still be Sanderson leading the way. Not only does he recruit the best of the best in the nation, but he also develops better than anybody in college wrestling.

The scary part is Sanderson is only 44 years old. He could be doing this for a while.

Honestly, the word ‘dynasty’ is starting to feel like it isn’t doing PSU enough justice to describe this run.

The Mirror’s Andy Stine covers Penn State wrestling for Nittany Sports Now.