Penn State Sports Magazine
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J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 5 41 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M Yeah, he's back and, well, he knows it. "I've had a little bit of practice with this, and I've found that I always come back stronger than before," Van Ness said. "I think that this one [knee] was more of a physical thing. It just took lon- ger than any of my other recoveries, but I knew that I would be coming back better than ever." 'The Real Deal' Van Ness is ranked second at 149 pounds behind defending NCAA champ Caleb Henson of Virginia Tech and ahead of West Virginia's Ty Watters, whom he defeated, 16-4, in this season's NWCA All-Star Classic at Rec Hall; Iowa's Kyle Parco, whom he beat, 7-2, in the 2023 NCAA consolation final when Parco was wrestling for Arizona State, and Nebraska's Ridge Lovett, whom he has yet to wrestle. Van Ness defeated Henson, 5-3, in the 2023 consolation final, but the Virginia Tech standout holds the No. 1 spot be- cause he won it all last season when Van Ness was recovering. "Shayne Van Ness is the real deal," said John Hughes, a 1995 NCAA champion, 1996 runner-up and 1994 All-American at 142 pounds for Penn State and one of only 14 four-time Pennsylvania state champions. "He's well-coached, he's disciplined and he's got attacks at every level. He's able to get off the bottom. He can ride when he has to. He turns people — he's good in every position. "What I like about him most," Hughes added, "is that he's disciplined in all aspects of the sport, his personal life … on and off the mat. He's a good kid. His parents have done a great job of raising a young man to make good decisions. I'm excited to see how he does in the future at the NCAAs." Hughes, who was an assistant coach at Lehigh for 12 seasons before resign- ing in 2019, attended the recent Penn State-Lehigh match on Dec. 8 and said he enjoys watching Van Ness's wrestling style. "He presses forward and creates ac- tion. If he gets scored on, he's OK with it, because he knows if he continues to wrestle the position, he'll just score his own points. I like that about him in par- ticular, and the other Penn State kids, because they do wrestle in every posi- tion," Hughes said. Penn State coach Cael Sanderson has said in the past and he repeated himself after the Lehigh match that Van Ness "uses every second." Proof of that came during Van Ness' 17-3 victory over Le- high's Matt Repos, in which the last of his 5 takedowns during the bout came at the final buzzer. "I think he has just an incredible feel for the sport and he's a competitor. He has that endless gas tank and motor," Sanderson said after the Lions' match with Lehigh in Allentown. "You put those things together and he's special. "And he's just easygoing. He's obvi- ously a hammer when he's wrestling, but he's just a happy and calm dude. I think that calmness helps, but he fo- cuses in when it's time to wrestle, and he uses every second. You wish all your guys would use every second of the match to further their cause. He's a great example of that." Continuing To Grow Understandably, Van Ness was frus- trated when the knee problem surfaced last season and he realized he'd be in re- hab once again. "I looked at it as training. I can't be in the room wrestling, but I can be train- ing, mentally, continuing to do things that are difficult for me," he said. "It might be as simple as walking a mile, and that might be the equivalent of do- ing a full wrestling practice for me at that time. It's just always training, al- ways getting better. "I stopped looking at the big picture," Van Ness added. "The days started to string together a lot faster, and I con- tinue to do that now, just focusing on what my goals are today. Then going out there and achieving them, coming in every day to get better." Through it all, Van Ness remained grateful even though he was unable to compete. "I don't want to be looking back wishing that I would have soaked in the moment a little bit more. So [it's a matter of] just being grateful and then always trying to teach and learn and continue to grow not just myself, but everyone around me," he explained. "I just want to be absolutely the most grateful person that I can be for every experience that I get, because I know what it's like when those opportunities get taken away from you." ■ "I just want to be absolutely the most grateful person that I can be for every experience that I get, because I know what it's like when those opportunities get taken away from you." V A N N E S S Date Opponent Time/TV Nov. 16 NWCA ALL-STAR CLASSIC Individ. Nov. 17 DREXEL W, 41-3 Nov. 24 Army Black Knight Invit'l* Individ. Dec. 8 Lehigh** W, 36-3 Dec. 15 WYOMING 1 p.m./B1G+ Dec. 22 Binghamton^ 3 p.m. Arkansas-Little Rock^ 5 p.m. Missouri^ 7 p.m. Jan. 10 MICHIGAN STATE 8 p.m./BTN Jan. 17 at Nebraska 9 p.m./BTN Jan. 24 at Rutgers 8 p.m./BTN Jan. 31 IOWA^^ 7 p.m./BTN Date Opponent Time/TV Feb. 7 MICHIGAN^^ 6 p.m./BTN Feb. 9 MARYLAND 1 p.m./B1G+ Feb. 14 at Ohio State 7 p.m./BTN Feb. 16 at Illinois 2 p.m./B1G+ Feb. 21 AMERICAN 7 p.m./B1G+ Mar. 8-9 Big Ten Championships # Mar. 20-22 NCAA Championships ## * at West Point, N.Y.; ** at PPL Center, Allentown, Pa.; ^ Journeymen Duals at Nashville, Tenn.; ^^ at the Bryce Jordan Center; # at Evanston, Ill.; ## at Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia 2024-25 Penn State Wrestling Schedule