Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1492675
M A R C H 2 0 2 3 15 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M By The Numbers 2 Takedowns surrendered by top-ranked Penn State in its 23-14 dual meet victory over second-ranked Iowa on Jan. 27 at the Bryce Jordan Center. The Hawkeyes got those takedowns in decisions over junior Beau Bartlett at 141 pounds and redshirt freshman Shayne Van Ness at 149. Iowa also won at 125 and 165 pounds and led the match 14-9 head- ing into the 174-pound bout. Top- ranked junior Carter Starocci then outlasted Iowa's Nelson Brands 2-1, touching off a run of four consecu- tive victories for PSU that clinched the team win. The Lions got bonus points from super senior Roman Bravo-Young at 133 (pin versus Brody Teske) and senior AARON BROOKS at 184 (tech fall versus Drake Rhodes) and finished the dual meet with 16 takedowns to the Hawkeyes' 2. 3.69 Grade-point average for the women's lacrosse team during the fall semester, the best GPA of Penn State's 31 sports teams. Close behind were the women's gymnastics and women's swimming and div- ing teams, both of which fin- ished with 3.66 GPAs. Women's soccer (3.64) and softball (3.51) were also among PSU's classroom leaders. On the men's side, the Nittany Lion ice hockey team had the highest collective GPA with a 3.44. 5 Consecutive matches against top-10 opponents for the fourth- ranked Penn State men's volleyball team. The Nittany Lions went 4-1 dur- ing that stretch from Jan. 20 to Feb. 4, with wins over No. 5 Pepperdine, No. 8 Stanford, No. 10 USC and No. 2 UCLA, and a loss to No. 3 Long Beach State. Graduate opposite hitter Cal Fisher hit .367 and had 15 kills in helping the Li- ons hand the visiting Bruins their first loss of the season. Penn State improved to 8-1, and coach Mark Pavlik earned the 636th win of his career, lifting him into fourth place all time among Divi- sion I coaches. 14th The Penn State football team's place in the On3 Consensus team rankings for the re- cruiting class of 2023. Boasting 14 con- sensus four-star prospects among its 23 players, the class is PSU's fifth in the past six years to finish among the top 15 nationally. The only class in that span to place outside of the top 15 was the 2021 freshman contin- gent, which numbered only 17 players and came in 18th. 40 The point differential in the paint in the Lady Lions' 95-51 loss to Iowa on Feb. 5 at the Bryce Jor- dan Center. Penn State was outscored 58-18 in the paint by the sixth-ranked Hawkeyes, a showing that left coach Carolyn Kieger disappointed in her team's intensity. "Defense is heart, it's effort," Kieger said. "We didn't bring that tonight. Our rotations were not there. We were a step late. We knew they were going to try to jam it inside on us. They had 58 points in the paint. Obviously, it's back to the drawing board. Defense starts and ends with heart and hustle." 49 First-half points by the Penn State men's basketball team in its 83-61 victory over Michigan on Jan. 29 at the Bryce Jordan Center. The Nittany Lions shot 61.3 percent from the floor and 52.9 percent from three-point range in compiling their highest-scoring first half in more than three years. Their 22-point victory over the Wolverines was the most lopsided PSU win in the 54-game his- tory of the series. 15,998 Attendance for the Penn State wres- tling team's dual meet against Iowa on Jan. 27. It tied for the largest crowd in NCAA history for an indoor wrestling event, equaling a record PSU had set in February 2018, also versus Iowa at the BJC. The Lions won both of those matches against the Hawkeyes, 28-13 five years ago and 23-14 in January. All told, Penn State has nine of the 10 largest indoor crowds in collegiate wrestling history. PHOTO BY DANIEL ALTHOUSE