Penn State Sports Magazine
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D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 3 47 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M "You've got to be quick to observe and figure out what can we do better. And that's what we'll do." Here is a look at each weight class for the upcoming season. One caveat: What we see come tournament time next March may be very different from the lineup at the beginning of the season. 125 pounds New Jersey native Robbie Howard en- ters his fourth season in State College having missed the past two due to in- jury. Penn State hopes that the shoulder problems that have kept him off the mat are behind him. If that's the case, he will be back in the starting lineup with hopes of improv- ing on his most recent competitive sea- son, when he went 7-6 in 2020-21 and reached the round of 16 at nationals. If Howard has any kind of setback, the Lions will likely to turn to Kurt McHenry, a transfer from Michigan. McHenry spent five years with the Wol- verines but struggled to find a spot in the starting lineup for much of that time and was hurt in 2022-23. McHenry and Howard will both see action this season, but the starting job is Howard's to lose. He was ranked the No. 27 Division I 125-pounder by Flo- Wrestling. 133 pounds How do you replace two-time NCAA champion Roman Bravo-Young? If you're Cael Sanderson, you do it by landing a former All-American. Penn State plucked third-year sopho- more Aaron Nagao out of the transfer portal this offseason. Nagao finished fifth at nationals last season, his first campaign as Minnesota's starter at 133. There were reports in October that the La Habra, Calif., native had been injured during preseason practice, but he is expected to be ready for the start of the season. Nagao did not win many matches via bonus point triumphs last year, so it will be interesting to see if that changes now that he's part of Penn State's program. In addition to Nagao, who is third in Flo's rankings at 133 pounds, the Lions have welcomed true freshman Braeden Davis, a four-time Michigan state champ. Senior Baylor Shunk could be an option at 133, as well. 141 pounds Senior Beau Bartlett will be the starter here following a 2022-23 season in which he competed for the first time at his natural weight of 141 instead of 149. The move led to his best season yet. He hit the All-America stand at NCAAs after finishing third, thanks in part to a 3-1 tiebreaker win over third seed Cole Matthews of Pitt in the quarterfinals. Bartlett has the highest preseason ranking of his career, sitting at No. 2 behind only Iowa's Real Woods in Flo's first look at the 141-pound weight class. Big things are expected this season out of Bartlett, who was 27-3 a year ago. 149 pounds Redshirt sophomore Shayne Van Ness is the starter here after going 24-7 last season, including a strong finish at the NCAA Tournament in which he went in seeded 12th and beat three of the top five seeds en route to a third- place finish and his first career All- America nod. Flo has ranked Van Ness second in the country at this weight class. The expec- tations for the Somerville, N.J., native will go up another notch this winter. 157 pounds Levi Haines, fresh off a runner-up finish at NCAAs as a true freshman, is back and slotted for this weight class in 2023-24. It is not out of the question that he could take an Olympic redshirt, but we don't see that happening. The more likely scenario is that he will try to reach the first-place podium at nation- als as a sophomore. Last winter, the coaching staff de- cided at midseason to burn Haines' red- shirt, and the move paid off in a big way. He won a Big Ten title and finished 25-2, a record that included an 11-0 mark in dual meets. Haines is a go-getter who can wrestle in any position and score points at will. Flo calls him the top 157-pounder in the country, and he's No. 16 in its overall pound-for-pound rankings. 165 pounds A transfer could take over here. Red- shirt freshman Mitchell Mesenbrink, a former Wisconsin prep standout and a U-20 world freestyle champion this summer, came to Penn State during the offseason after wrestling just two matches (both wins) in his lone season at Cal Baptist. Mesenbrink could take an Olympic redshirt, but if he doesn't go that route, we expect him to win this job over red- shirt sophomore Alex Facundo. Al- though Flo has Facundo ranked 12th at 165, he had a disappointing 2022-2023 season, finishing 19-6 and dropping his first two bouts at nationals. The Lions could end up using both wrestlers at times this year, but Mesen- brink came to Penn State for a reason — to compete as a starter on a high-caliber team. 174 pounds Carter Starocci confirmed in late Oc- tober that he will return for one final season in State College. He is the No. 1 wrestler both at this weight class and in Flo's overall pound-for-pound rankings. Starocci has won three consecutive NCAA titles. He last lost a match during the 2020-21 season and is 47-0 during the past two campaigns, with two Big Ten titles to go with his national crowns. Starocci could be in and out of the lineup like Bravo-Young was a year ago. When he does not compete, true fresh- man Josh Barr could get some run in the Lions' lineup. Expect Starocci to com- plete the four-peat at nationals.