Penn State wrestling finishes dual season No. 2 in the NWCA poll, shares Big Ten title

Penn State wrestling held steady at No. 2 in the last National Wrestling Coaches Association’s coaches poll of the season Tuesday, after defeating Ohio State and Maryland in the last week and locking up a share of the Big Ten wrestling dual meet championship in the process.

The Nittany Lions (6-0) will share that crown with the only team ranked ahead of them in the NWCA poll — the 5-0 Iowa Hawkeyes — after both programs went undefeated in duals in this conference-only season. This marks the seventh conference crown for Penn State in the past decade.

Seven other Big Ten schools earned a spot in the final poll of the season, one less than the 10 that were in last week’s poll.

Three of those schools — Michigan (No. 4), Nebraska (No. 8) and Minnesota (t-No. 9) — also found themselves in the top 10.

No. 11 Illinois, No. 12 Ohio State, No. 18 Purdue and No. 23 Michigan State round out the ranked Big Ten teams after last week’s No. 25 team, Wisconsin, fell out of the poll.

The Badgers, along with Northwestern and Rutgers, are among 11 team’s receiving votes but ranked outside the top 25.

The Nittany Lions have finished the regular season 6-0 after taking down the Buckeyes — 28-12 — on Friday and the Terrapins — 44-0 — on Monday. They’ll next take the mat March 6 when they take part in the Big Ten Championships, scheduled to take place at the Bryce Jordan Center.

They end their regular season with nine ranked wrestlers in the latest individual InterMat rankings, the same number as last week. Four of those wrestlers — Roman Bravo-Young (No. 3, 133 pounds), Nick Lee (No. 2, 141 pounds), Brady Berge (No. 8, 157 pounds) and Aaron Brooks (No. 2, 184 pounds) — stayed steady at their ranking after going undefeated this week.

Bravo-Young, Lee and Brooks each earned two wins, while Berge only took the mat against Ohio State to go 1-0.

Four of the other weight classes saw Nittany Lions go up in the rankings.

Freshman Beau Bartlett made his Penn State dual meet debut against Ohio State and made his rankings debut at No. 11 this week at 149 pounds. He lost a tight 5-3 decision to No. 2 Sammy Sasso, of the Buckeyes, before earning two wins against Maryland, one of which came in the extra matches after the dual concluded to bring his record to 7-1 overall on the year (3-1 at 149). Bartlett replaced Terrell Barraclough in the rankings, who was No. 20 for Penn State last week.

Another freshman, heavyweight Greg Kerkvliet, made his Penn State debut Monday night against the Terrapins and won two matches in impressive fashion to leap all the way up to No. 6 in the rankings, replacing Seth Nevills who was previously No. 8. Kerkvliet earned two pins in a combined 2:30 against Maryland — one in the extra matches following the dual — to go 2-0 in the regular season.

Two other freshman each bumped up one spot with 174-pounder Carter Starocci moving to No. 4 after going 2-0 and defeating now-No. 6 Kaleb Romero and 197-pounder Michael Beard moving to No. 15 after going 2-0.

Freshman 165-pounder Joe Lee was the only Nittany Lion to earn a lower ranking this week. He went 1-1 with his loss coming by fall to Ohio State’s Ethan Smith, the No. 10 wrestler in the class.