It’s been two weeks since No. 2 Penn State took the wrestling mat, avoiding two upset bids from UPenn and Lehigh in non-conference play on the weekend of Dec. 3.
Now, the Nittany Lions take a perfect 5-0 record to Niceville, Florida for the 2022 Collegiate Wrestling Duals from Dec. 20-21.
Twelve teams, six of them currently ranked in the top-10, are heading to Florida for this jam-packed, two-day event including last year’s national champion, No. 1 Iowa.
Penn State will be taking on two top-25 teams in No. 22 Northern Iowa and No. 11 Cornell on Monday night, with those results determining who they’ll wrestle on Tuesday.
The Nittany Lions have another star-studded lineup this season, with four returning individual national champions: senior Roman Bravo Young (133 lb), senior Nick Lee (141 lb), sophomore Carter Starocci (174 lb) and junior Aaron Brooks (184 lb).
Those four are also all ranked No. 1 in their respective weight classes this season, going a combined 16-0 so far.
Despite not winning a team national championship, the 2021 season was just the third time ever that Penn State had four or more individual national champions in the same season.
Coming into this big time tournament, the Nittany Lions have had immense success against both UNI and Cornell, with a 4-0 all-time record against the Wildcats and a 55-12-3 all-time record against the Big Red.
Both the Northern Iowa and Cornell matches are on Monday night at 7 pm EST and 9 pm EST respectively.
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