Penn State Sports Magazine
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A P R I L 2 0 2 3 3 9 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M at the BOK Center in Tulsa, Okla., and placed seven among the top three. That's the art of scoring team points. And there's the rub. Three of those losses came in the final round. While junior Carter Starocci (174 pounds) and senior Aaron Brooks (184) were victorious in their respective quests to win a third consecutive NCAA title, super senior Roman Bravo-Young (133), junior Greg Kerkvliet (285) and freshman Levi Haines (157) came up short — B r a v o -Yo u n g while vying for his third and the other two for their first. Redshirt freshman Alex Facundo (165) was the only one of the nine qualifiers not to place. No matter how pleased Sanderson and assistants Cody Sanderson, Casey Cun- ningham and Jimmy Kennedy were with the team's overall accomplishments, the emotional aspect of the sport is unavoid- able when individual success isn't equal across the board. "The team had a great weekend with a lot of gutsy performances," Sanderson said. "It's an individual sport as well as a team sport, so as a coach, your heart and mind are with the guys that don't reach their goals. It's a tough tournament. Guys wrestled great; we had seven guys in the top three, and in a tournament like this, it's awesome. "You have some tough losses but some great wins, too. We're happy and proud of our guys. … They competed hard." A Team Effort This team, like last year's, clinched its championship during the consola- tion round on Saturday morning. After junior Beau Bartlett (141) and redshirt freshman Shayne Van Ness (149) placed third and senior Max Dean (197) placed seventh, the Lions could sit back until the nationally televised finals that night on the NCAA's big stage. Many times, the key to a team title is production in the consolation rounds, and Bartlett and Van Ness were an in- tegral part of that effort. Both lost in the semifinals but battled back to place third, and both were pleased with their — and the team's — performance. "It's really exciting," said Bartlett, whose only loss was 6-2 to eventual champion Andrew Alirez of Northern Colorado. "Winning the team title, I'm really grateful for that. Seeing some guys win in the finals, I'm really proud of them. Some guys that weren't able to win their last match, I feel for them. I've seen all the hard work they've done, and I think that just shows how tight of a team we are." Bartlett and Van Ness are examples of Sanderson's handiwork. Both entered Penn State with lofty prep school cre- dentials, but credentials only take you so far in Division I wrestling. It's the de- velopment factor with Penn State that has been setting the Nittany Lions apart from the rest over the past decade. Van Ness's early rounds had Penn State fans talking. He pinned Maryland's Ethen Miller after trailing 8-1 and 12-7. He turned a 3-2 dual meet loss to Iowa State's Paniro Johnson into a 14-8 win in the second round. And he trailed Indi- ana's Graham Rooks 7-3 before winning 10-7. He was stopped 8-3 by eventual four-time champion Yianni Diakomiha- lis of Cornell but led 3-2 late. His biggest wins were in the consola- tions, a 5-3 nod over Virginia Tech fresh- man star Caleb Henson and a 7-2 win over Arizona State two-time All-Amer- ican Kyle Parco. "I think the pieces c a m e t o g e t h e r when they needed to," Van Ness said. "I'm happy with my performance. I'm not happy with the result, but we've got a lot more years to come, and I'm excited for the future." The Lions will be losing Bravo-Young and Dean, and with USA freestyle wres- tling drawing more and more attention because of its recent international suc- cess, Olympic redshirts by a wrestler or two next season wouldn't be a surprise. That keeps the onus on the staff to main- tain their recruiting prowess and devel- opmental success. "It's a program," Sanderson said. "Our assistant coaches are unbelievable. Coach Cody and Coach Casey and Coach Kennedy, they work really, really hard. We've just got to keep getting better, and we've got a lot of things we can work on moving forward. That's what you do. You come here and you've got to be quick to observe and figure things out, what can we do better? And that's what we'll do." A Pair Of Three-Peats How much better Starocci and Brooks become remains to be seen, but with six titles between them, their tal- ent level clearly is unmatched. Starocci breezed through his five consecutive wins, recording 2 falls — including the only fall in the finals — and yielded just 2 points in those five bouts. He pinned Nebraska's Mikey Labriola in the 174-pound final, stop- ping the Cornhusker senior on an at- tempted shoulder roll from the stand- ing position, catching him on his back "It's a tough tournament. Guys wrestled great; we had seven guys in the top three, and in a tournament like this, it's awesome." S A N D E R S O N 2022-23 WRESTLING RESULTS DATE OPPONENT RESULT Nov. 11 LOCK HAVEN W, 44-3 Nov. 20 Black Knight Open* Individ. only Dec. 2 at Rider W, 37-3 Dec. 4 at Lehigh W, 24-12 Dec. 11 OREGON STATE W, 31-3 Dec. 19 Central Michigan** W, 50-3 Dec. 19 North Carolina** W, 37-3 Dec. 20 Iowa State** W, 22-12 Jan. 6 at Wisconsin W, 28-12 Jan. 20 MICHIGAN W, 30-8 Jan. 23 MICHIGAN STATE W, 34-6 Jan. 27 IOWA W, 23-14 Feb. 3 at Ohio State W, 29-9 Feb. 5 at Indiana W, 35-8 Feb. 10 at Rutgers W, 33-8 Feb. 12 MARYLAND W, 44-3 Feb. 19 CLARION W, 40-6 Mar. 4-5 Big Ten Tournament^ 1st Mar. 16-18 NCAA Tournament # 1st * at West Point, N.Y.; ** Collegiate Wrestling Duals at New Orleans; ^ at Ann Arbor, Mich.; # at Tulsa, Okla.