In anticipation the home team handed out “Takedown” posters intending for the Wolverine fans to raise them in the air for each takedown by the home team. Fortunately, those banners were little used, 3
total takedowns on the night, and they should still be in pristine conditions to be used as a placemat in Ann Arbor dining rooms.
125 #1 Luke Lilledahl v. #23 Diego Sotelo
Luke came to us with the “Lightning Luke” moniker, rightly earned as a schoolboy and we’re seeing exactly why he carries that nickname. Poor Sotelo, who looks like he could make the cut to 113 pounds, had no chance. Luke lit him up with 3 takedowns in the first and continued to pour it on through the 2nd. He ended the tech fall with a reversal off the whistle to start the 3rd. The only nit to pick here is that after building a large lead Luke got a little sloppy going after the tech. He gave up a reversal that cut the lead to 15-5 midway through the 2nd and, maybe it’s just me, it looked like he put himself in a bit of danger scrambling for the R2 to start the 3rd. A fresher, better wrestler may have caught him there. Sotelo was in no condition to capitalize at that point.
To my eye, Lightning Luke is wrestling better than he has to date in a Penn State singlet this last few weeks. He’s clearly gearing up for an exciting post season run.
133 #4 Marcus Blaze v. Gauge Botero
Marcus doesn’t have a flashy nickname like “Lightning” so we’re going to have to come up with one. I’m leaning toward “Scorched Earth” Blaze. Marcus has this eerie stalking style that reminds me of a mechanical Starocci. He hunts these guys all over the mat, never relenting and never getting out of position. Against another overmatched opponent you knew this wasn’t going 7 minutes and Marcus turned Botero onto his back at the edge of the mat as the 1st period expired. Getting saved by the bell only delayed the outcome for Botero. After a quick escape to go up 11-1 Blaze scored 2 more takedowns to end the tech fall, 17-2 in 4 minutes and 40 seconds.
141 Nate Desmond v. #26 Dylan Ragusin
Michigan native Braeden “Scooter” Davis was given the night off, either for injury or discipline, and Desmond answered the call to face Old Man Ragusin. Ragusin’s long career has been delayed, deferred, and extended by injuries and it looks like he’s not the same wrestler that finished 5th at 133 in 2024. Still, it was a great challenge for Desmond up at 141, remember it was earlier this season that Desmond wrestled 125 at the Black Knight Open. This one was a tight match through regulation with each wrestler threatening to score a winning takedown but it took sudden victory for Desmond to counter a Ragusin attempt and secure an 8-5 victory.
The effort earned Desmond the Ernie Lucas award. It goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway, no program outside of Happy Valley has this kind of depth. Desmond may not be able to be a 4 year starter here but he’s betting on himself to be the best wrestler he can be and he’s in the right place to accomplish that goal.
149 #1 Shayne Van Ness v. #13 Lachlan McNeil
SMFVN was facing another cagy veteran in McNeil, the transfer from UNC. McNeil must have scouted the Nebraska Dual from last week and thought punching Shayne in the face may be his best strategy to slow Shayne. Fortunately, we had an above average ref this week and McNeil was dinged for his efforts. Shayne scored TD3s in the first and 3rd periods plus a RT1 to secure a 9-1 major decision. As usual, Shayne gives us a bow and a big smile after a workman-like win.
157 #4 Peter John Duke v. #13 Cam Catrabone
These last 2 duals have seen PJ face the toughest competition for the season to date and this time he was able to tough out a W. PJ’s been wrestling non-stop since forever and looks to be scuffling through a tough patch, exacerbated by strong competition. He may benefit from a little down time as the dual season concludes and we head into tournament time. Catrabone was unsympathetic, as expected, and took it right to PJ scoring the first takedown of the match. PJ seemed to tweak his shoulder and took brief injury time for Dan Monthly to work his magic.
Catrabone chose down on the restart and escaped out to a 4-1 lead. The battle waged on, each wrestler scoring 2 more takedowns, the last for Catrabone gave him a brief 9-7 lead. PJ then countered quickly for an E1 and TD3 that put him up 11-9. An E1 for Catrabone and RT1 for Duke ended the score with PJ earning the 12-10 decision.
Fortunately there seemed to be no lingering effects of the shoulder issue for PJ. He’s probably looking at facing a Buckeye backup next week instead of the injured top ranked Brandon Cannon. If Cael wants my advice I’d suggest seeing how PJ handles this week and consider giving him a break for that Princeton Dual to end the regular season. Give PJ the opportunity to be in the best possible shape to start the B1G tournament.
165 # 1 Mitchell Mesenbrink v. Justin Gates
The reality is that every 165 pounder is overmatched when they toe the line across from Mitchell. When you’re a middling redshirt freshman there’s not a lot of hope for you. To his credit, Gates hung in there as best he could. Mitchell continued his season-long quest of getting more pins and looked for some opportunities to put Gates on his back. Can we call it a minor victory for Gates that he avoided the pin? Why not? Both wrestlers were bleeding all over the mat at one point. It took Mitchell into the 3rd period and a Zain like head rap before securing the 20-5 tech file at the 6:30 mark.
Bloodied but unbowed, Mitchell once again was appreciative of the scrap.
One small aside here, tournament time is approaching and conditioning is critical. As evidence, we saw Strength and Condition Coach Michael Schroeder escort each wrestler off the mat and through the tunnel for what we assume was an extra cardio push. PSU Wrestling’s superior conditioning doesn’t happen by accident.
174 #1 Levi Haines v. #11 Beau Mantanona
In a wild scramble for the first minute of period 1, Jeff Byers screamed without stopping to breathe and Levi went back and forth with BeauMan before finally coming up on top for an early lead. That set the tone for the match and Levi methodically continued the onslaught for a 19-4 tech fall just 2 seconds before time expired in the 3rd. That conditioning we talk about, Levi has it.
184 #1 Rocco Welsh v. #7 Brock Mantanona
Rocco continued to push his offense and scored a TD3 in the first 3-0 lead and over a minute in riding time. To complement that newfound offense is Rocco’s always stellar defense. BrockMan never really threatened to score and Rocco came away with an 8-1 win, just missing a bonus point.
197 #1 Josh Barr v. #20 Hayden Walters
Opposing teams must feel a bit like Butch and Sundance when another #1 wrestler from PSU steps on the match. “Who are those guys?” Just like that relentless posse Cael’s wrestlers just keep coming and Josh Barr is the most relentless this side of Mesenbrink. Walters did score 4 escapes though. Barr comes away with the 19-4 tech fall in 6 minutes and 50 seconds. Like Levi, using almost all of the 7 minutes for cardio work and keeping Schroeder on hold.
285 #12 Cole Mirasola v. #5 Taye Ghadiali
Heavyweight in the B1G and another matchup of top ranked wrestlers. It’s a brutal schedule and Cole is taking it on without wilting which is a very good sign. So close but just not quite enough to pull off the upset as Ghadiali rode a 2nd period takedown to avoid the shutout. Ghadiali obviously doesn’t measure up to Schroeder’s conditioning requirement as gasped, wheezed, and delayed restarts to make it through 7 minutes.
As for Cole, he continues to progress as a young, undersized heavy and that will pay off in a year or two. I’m still pulling for him to make the podium this year but as he continues to add good weight and build strength and skill he’ll be challenging the best of this weight class going forward.
No shut out but a very impressive 38-3 win over one of the top teams in the country. Michigan has some good young wrestlers and with a few good recruits coming in they should be a much better team next year.
The Takery
For the last month or so there’s been a lot of talk outside of Happy Valley about how hard it is to score takedowns in today’s NCAA wrestling. Well I’m here to tell you that one team has scored 37 takedowns against #11 Michigan, 33 against then #3 Iowa, and 29 against then #5 Nebraska. Through 13 duals this season the total takedowns are 418 for and 35 against. That’s an average of better than 32-3 for the season, which puts Friday night’s dual just about average for the season. To break down further, PSU wrestlers average slightly more per match than opponents do for the dual.
So takedowns are hard for some, most, teams; for one, they’re routine.
As for the remaining schedule, that’s it for travel until Nationals in Cleveland. We have 2 remaining home duals, #2 Ohio State next Friday then Princeton for Senior night on February 20, followed by B1Gs in the BJC March 7 and 8. This train keeps rolling.
Cari will give us that tOSU match preview on Friday but a quick look ahead reveals that the Wrestling Bucks are limping a bit to the finish after starting hot back in November. 157 #1 Brandon Cannon is not expected to wrestle and 125 #2 Nic Bouzakis looked to have tweaked his back in a win against Iowa this past Friday. Tom Ryan’s working on his excuses as we speak. Something like “it’s unfair that we wrestled in the NDI back in November and Penn State didn’t.” I’m sure they’ll be hanging a banner in Covelli for that NDI title right next to all those #1 Recruiting Class banners.
