With a depleted lineup for the second time in three nights, the Nittany Lions yet again found a way to win.
After taking a quick jaunt across the state to take on Penn on Friday, Penn State returned to the friendly confines of Rec Hall on Saturday to welcome another in-state foe, Lehigh.
Much like in Friday's 20-16 victory, the Nittany Lions entered the dual with a significantly depleted lineup due to undisclosed reasons. However, much like on Friday, Penn State found a way to win, downing the Mountain Hawks 23-16.
The dual began at 125 pounds where Bucknell transfer Jakob Campbell made his dual debut for the Nittany Lions. Campbell squared off with two-time Pennsylvania state champion Jaret Lane and it was Lane who came out on the better end of an 11-3 major decision to give Lehigh an 11-3 lead.
Thankfully for Penn State, Roman Bravo-Young returned to the lineup after missing Friday's dual. Bravo-Young used an array of attacks and 2:23 of riding time to grab a 19-7 major decision, tying the dual.
Up at 141, Nick Lee squared off with Connor McGonagle in his second match back after missing time to injury and illness. Lee looked more himself than he did in Thursday's win over Penn's Carmen Ferrante, but still conceded a late reversal and was held to a 13-6 decision victory, making the dual score 7-4 in favor of the hosts.
The match of the afternoon came at 149, where Penn State's Beau Bartlett put his undefeated record on the line after Lehigh's Manzona Bryant. Bartlett started strongly, using a pair of takedowns and an escape to build a 5-1 lead late in the third period. But a strange stalemate call gave Bryrant a late restart and he took advantage, notching a reversal to make it 5-3 headed to the third period. Bryant then escaped to make it 5-4 early in the third and took a 6-5 lead with a takedown from double underhooks late in the match. It appeared Bartlett had escape in short time to send the match to sudden victory, but no escape was given after a length review and Bryant took the 6-5 win, drawing the ire of the Rec Hall crowd.
If the fans weren't engaged enough at that point, they became even more angry at head referee Angel Rivera after the match at 157. Penn State's Tony Negron made his Nittany Lions' debut against 10th-ranked Josh Humphreys. Negron showed admirably, taking an early 2-1 lead with a slick low single leg, but Humprey fought back to take a late 5-4 lead. Negron then got in deep on a takedown and appeared to have the winning two with under 10 seconds remaining, but after initially giving the takedown, the referees took the points off the board and Humphreys held on for a 5-4 victory.
That gave the visitors a 10-7 lead at the intermission.
Out of the break, Penn State picked up the first of two big wins in toss-up bouts as Creighton Edsell used a strong third-period ride to take a 2-1 win over Lehigh's Brian Meyer, who only recently topped 2021 NCAA runner-up Jake Wentzel of Pitt.
Carter Starocci kept the momentum rolling with a 13-3 major decision victory over Jake Logan to put Penn State ahead 14-10 headed to 184 pounds.
WIth Aaron Brooks out for the second straight dual, Donovan Ball yet again got the start, this time against the Mountain Hawks' AJ Burkhart. As he did against Penn, Ball filled in admirably, using takedowns in the first and second periods and an escape in the third to nab a 5-3 win, putting Penn State up 17-10 and all but sealing the dual.
Max Dean had the honors of putting a bow on this one for the Nittany Lions at 197. The Cornell transfer and former NCAA finalist notched an early takedown against Lehigh's JT Davis before using a tilt to make it 6-0 and then a bow and arrow to take Davis over for the fall at the 2:58 mark, sealing the dual with Penn State leading 23-16.
With Greg Kerkvliet unavailable, Penn State forfeited the match at 285 to bring the final score to 23-16.
The Nittany Lions will now have 15 days off before returning to action on Dec. 20 in the Collegiate Wrestling Duals in Florida against Northern Iowa and Cornell.
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