Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1518105
A P R I L 2 0 2 4 4 5 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M — in order — Oklahoma State's Pat Smith, Starocci's coach and former Iowa State wrestler Cael Sanderson, Cornell's Kyle Dake, Ohio State's Logan Stieber and Cornell's Yianni Diakomihalis. Starocci might be the first Penn Stater, but he lost the status of being the only one just 30 minutes later when super se- nior teammate Aaron Brooks completed his quest to become a four-time titlist as well. Brooks defeated Trent Hidlay of NC State, 6-1, and etched his name as the second Penn State wrestler to win four and only the seventh overall. That was only a segment of the cele- bration; Penn State also placed a school- record six wrestlers in the finals, and four of them were able to earn gold medals. Eight Nittany Lions became All-Ameri- cans, and the team's 10-man contingent won 45 of their 54 matches. Sophomore Levi Haines and senior Greg Kerkvliet won titles at 157 and 285, respectively, to join Starocci and Brooks on top of the podium. Senior Beau Bartlett at 141 and redshirt freshman Mitchell Mesenbrink (165) placed second, while freshman Tyler Kasak won seven consec- utive bouts to place third at 149 and grad- uate Bernie Truax won a fifth-place medal at 184. Freshman Braeden Davis (125) and redshirt sophomore Aaron Nagao (133) fell one win short of All-America status. It All Started When … Penn State began to establish itself as the king of college wrestling in 2011 and since then has had two streaks of four consecutive titles (2011-14 and 2016-19), along with the current skein of three in a row. It's a domination not seen since Iowa won 20 titles between 1975 and 2000. That almost automatically incites a conversation about comparisons be- tween the two programs, and especially between former Iowa coach Dan Gable, who won 15 titles, and Penn State's Sanderson, who has 11 titles with the Nittany Lions. Sanderson as a collegiate athlete at Iowa State claimed four titles while win- ning each of his 159 matches. Gable won two titles, also for Iowa State, and both won Olympic gold medals, Gable in 1972 and Sanderson 32 years later. Sanderson prefers not to enter into comparison mode. "I'm not worried about that stuff," he said shortly after winning title No. 11 in Kansas City. "When I got to col- lege, [Gable] was retired. Obviously, I know a lot about Coach Gable and the dominance they had and the excellence of the program. "But we're doing our thing," Sander- son continued. "We don't worry about and try to compare ourselves to others. We're just going to be the best we can be. As a staff, we're here trying to fig- ure out what we can do better and how we can have our guys better prepared, because things continue to change. The game continues to change. That's what makes it fun." A Likeness Between The Two Programs Mike Finn, longtime publisher of Wre s t l i n g I n s i d e r News m a ga z i n e , known as WIN, said he can see a paral- lel between the old Iowa teams and the modern-day Penn State program. "I see a similarity in the coaching, the staff and the organization, because Gable will always talk about his system. It wasn't about Dan Gable," Finn said. "He could get guys from all over the place, but he had a system and he also had coaches that stayed with him for a long time, just like Casey [Cunningham] and Cael's brother [Cody] have. "Back then, there was an Iowa style, an aggressive style, but it really wasn't; they had some unique individuals, too. That was the strength of the head coach and the staff — to bring out the best. If you look at the current Penn State group, it's very similar." The world was different, too, Finn said, citing no social media and that teams such as Iowa had to promote themselves by winning. "I'm not sure if there's much drama with the current Penn State group," Finn said. "The Iowa group back then were, in a sense, rock stars. They had to actu- ally get the message out more. They had to work it. And that's where Gable was great, whereas Cael is more low-key. "He just lets it happens, in my mind, and that's why he's almost reluctant to call the program the greatest. He prob- ably does believe it, but I'm not sure if he wants to say it." The Iowa fan base doesn't want to say it either, Finn said about Penn State's cur- rent run of dominance. Because they were on top for so long, the Hawkeyes were the villains among all other fan bases. Penn State has gotten a taste of that backlash, too. Loud roars erupted in Kansas City when a PSU wrestler would lose. "Gable still remembers that, and he doesn't have any apologies. And he'll say that Penn State shouldn't have any apologies," Finn said. "They set the standard. State College, with the Nit- tany Lion Wrestling Club, is basically the center of the amateur wrestling world right now in this country." It's All About Training The Nittany Lion Wrestling Club is led by Olympic champion Jake Varner, and training in the NLWC are USA se- nior-level Olympic champions David Taylor and Kyle Snyder. World cham- pion Kyle Dake also is with the NLWC, as are many other multiple-time NCAA winners from Penn State such as Jason Nolf and Zain Retherford. Current Nittany Lions are permitted to train with the NLWC, and Christian "We don't worry about and try to compare ourselves to others. We're just going to be the best we can be. As a staff, we're here trying to figure out what we can do better … because things continue to change. The game continues to change. That's what makes it fun." 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