Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1420595
W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M after suffering numerous injuries while competing for the Nittany Lions. 165 pounds Favorite: Alex Facundo The skinny: A stellar freshman from Davison, Mich., who was ranked as the No. 2 overall recruit in the country in his class by FloWrestling, Facundo was picked as the national Dave Schultz High School Excellence Award winner follow- ing a 25-0 senior season. He has placed at international tourna- ments already and was ranked No. 1 at his weight class nationally for three consecu- tive prep seasons. Facundo is one of only 30 wrestlers ever to win four consecutive state titles in Michigan. 174 pounds Favorite: Carter Starocci The skinny: One of the Nittany Lions' four national champions from a season ago, the redshirt sophomore from Erie. Pa., has won 33 of 35 career matches and enters the year as InterMat's top-ranked wres- tler at this weight class. His biggest nem- esis will again be Iowa's Michael Kemerer, whom he beat 3-1 in sudden victory to earn the top spot at nationals last season. 184 pounds Favorite: Aaron Brooks The skinny: After finishing 14-0 and winning a national title last year, Brooks didn't rest on his laurels. The junior in- stead spent his offseason training with David Taylor and even accompanied him to the Olympics as a workout partner on the path to Taylor's gold medal. Brooks enters his third season in State College, where he'll seek another first- place and All-America finish. InterMat starts him at No. 1 in its preseason rank- ings. 197 pounds Favorites: Max Dean, Michael Beard The skinny: There aren't many weight classes that feature a compe- tition, but this is one of them. Dean transferred from Cornell, where he was a two-time All-American and a 2019 NCAA finalist at 184 pounds, but he hasn't wrestled in college for a couple of years due to Olympic training and the Ivy League's subsequent cancellation of sports activities due to the pandemic. Beard is a redshirt sophomore and a returning All-American. InterMat ranks only one wrestler per school in its list- ings, however, and placed Dean at No. 4. This will be a heck of a battle that could truly go either way. 285 pounds Favorite: Greg Kerkvliet The skinny: Kerkvliet revealed on social media that a staph infection and blood clots impacted his performance a year ago, but he was able to battle back and finish fourth at Big Tens before taking seventh place and claiming All- America honors at NCAAs. Now f u l ly h ea l t hy, t h e re d s h i r t sophomore from Inver Grover Heights, Minn., is expected to be among the na- tion's best heavyweights. He's ranked No. 5 by InterMat in the preseason, be- hind four Big Ten rivals. ■ Every preseason, before the high school wrestling season starts, FloWrestling puts on its Who's Number One all-star event, in an effort to determine the na- tion's best at each weight class going into the season. Penn State presumably had several recruiting targets in action at the event, which was held Sept. 18 in Dallas, but just one commit. However, 160-pound senior Levi Haines shined in one of the night's most-anticipated matches. Josh Barr, an undefeated two-time state champion from his home state of Michigan, won a national championship at Freestyle Nationals in Fargo, North Dakota, this past summer — but Haines was not present at the event, since he had earned the right to represent the United States at the Cadet World Championships, where he went 1-1 and which occurred at the same time at Fargo. The two finally met in a true No. 1-versus-No. 2 showdown, and following a scoreless first period, Haines pulled away in the second. Barr quickly stood up to score first via an escape, but Haines immediately shot, took him down and rode him the rest of the period. A third-period escape and riding-time point gave Haines a 4-1 victory. The product of former Nittany Lion star and Olympic gold medalist David Tay- lor's M2 Training Center, which is located close to State College in Pleasant Gap, was able to hang on to the No. 1 spot with a win over Barr, who is still listed at No. 2. The victory did move Haines up in FloWrestling's pound-for-pound rank- ings of all prep grapplers, rising from No. 13 to No. 10. Only five seniors and four juniors are listed ahead of him. Flo's 2022 big board hasn't been updated in almost a year, but Haines is listed as the No. 12 overall recruit in the class by InterMat. Barr was listed at No. 10 on Flo's 2023 big board (updated June 9) and No. 14 by InterMat (June 15), and included Penn State when he released his top five in late August; he is also con- sidering Ohio State, Iowa, Virginia Tech and Michigan. Meanwhile, Haines brings a 100-5 career record into his senior year at Bigler- ville (Pa.) High. He took second in the state at a freshman (at 106 pounds) and sophomore (126), before moving up to 145 pounds and claiming his first Class AA crown last winter. Haines was scheduled to wrestle in the Super 32, considered the nation's best preseason tournament for high school and middle school wrestlers, Oct. 23-24 in Greensboro, N.C. — Ryan Tice Penn State Commit Wins At 'Who's Number One' All-Star Event Senior Nick Lee, the defending NCAA champion at 141 pounds, goes into the season ranked No. 1 in his weight class by InterMat. PHOTO COURTESY PENN STATE ATHLETICS 4 8 N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 1