Penn State Sports Magazine
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4 4 A P R I L 2 0 2 6 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M P enn State has won five consecutive NCAA wres- tling titles and in doing so raised its record-setting point totals by 50 from the 131.5 it scored in 2022 to the 181.5 it just rang up in Cleveland. And it also raised the obvious question: Is this Penn State's best team ever? The program has been strong forever, now at 982 wins since its inception in 1909, but for decades the Eastern kingpin was in the shadow of Oklahoma State in the 1940s, '50s and '60s and Iowa in the 1970s, '80s and '90s. Cael Sanderson arrived at Penn State in April 2009, and since then the Lions have won 233 times in 251 matches, earn- ing 10 Big Ten titles and 13 of the past 15 NCAA championships. This year, with seven Big Ten champs, a record-setting seven NCAA No. 1 seeds and four champs out of six finalists, the question of whether this is the best Penn State team ever is front and center in the minds of those who follow the sport. As good as this team is, next season's Nittany Lions could be better, factor- ing in nine possible returnees, this year's redshirts and next year's incoming re- cruits. Nevertheless, opinions vary but all have the same thread. "I would say so. I think it's the most talented up and down in every weight class," said Tom Elling, a Pennsylvania wrestling historian who first competed in wrestling in 1958 and has been heav- ily involved in the sport statewide ever since. "There's really no weight class that doesn't have the talent, but balance- wise, and potential, I say, yeah, this probably is the best Penn State team that I've seen." Another prevailing question: Why? "I think it's recruiting; you've got to recruit. And I think Cael recruits char- acter as well as talent," Elling said. "You have to sell the program to get the kids here, and the best want to come here. I think that's a big part of it. Plus the com- mitment, the conditioning, the fact that wrestling is fun, it's not a job … that's a big thing with Cael Sanderson." Jeff Byers, the radio voice of Penn State wrestling for nearly four decades, noted the previous Iowa supremacy but mar- veled at this year's Penn State team. "We've not seen a team with this type of dominance through a dual season where you have seven wrestlers unde- feated going into the postseason," Byers said about the Lions' lineup. "We've not seen anything quite like this, I feel pretty comfortable in saying, in the history of the sport." Another longtime follower of the sport, Norm Palovcsik, who wrestled for Penn State 55 years ago and publishes the Pennsylvania Wrestling Roundup, cites the Lions' overall competitiveness in each weight class as his deciding factor. "This is a great team but, first of all, it's a great program," Palovcsik said. "If Penn State could enter a second team, they'd probably be runners-up with the backup guys. That's unrealistic, but you have six guys who finished one or two, and a third and a fourth [place]. And moving for- ward, [the program] is going to be very productive." Those types of statements are not just from within the state or those close to the team. Ohio State coach Tom Ryan was complimentary about the Penn State program. "I think everyone in life needs some- thing to chase and pursue. It's just part of the way we're wired," Ryan said at the NCAAs. "And Penn State has provided something for every Division I program to chase and pursue. That's really important. … Obviously, Cael has done an amazing job at Penn State." Christian Pyles from FloWrestling said going into the NCAAs that Penn State was good enough to set a bar that even a Penn State team for the future is going to have a hard time matching. "It's an unbelievable time in college wrestling where you have a team that has this level of dominance that no other col- lege team is experiencing in any sport," Pyles said. "That's where Penn State is at right now." NCAA 125-pound champion Luke Lilledahl said prior to nationals that it was "cool to be a part of a team that's full of a bunch of savages" and noted that the team is always looking to the next thing and try- ing to become better than the last year. But he summed things up by saying what most Penn State loyalists already knew. "I feel like our best tournament histori- cally is the NCAA Tournament," he said. With history so often repeating itself, the question of whether this is Penn State's best team ever might be an annual query. ■ During the 2025-26 season, Penn State went 15-0 in dual meet action and handily won the Big Ten and NCAA tournaments. PHOTO BY MARK SELDERS/PENN STATE ATHLETICS Best Team Ever? PSU Makes Its Case … Again J I M CA R L S O N | B L U E W H I T E C O N T R I B U T O R