It was a historic night at T-Mobile Arena in Kansas City on Saturday evening.
The Penn State Nittany Lions saw themselves break the NCAA team scoring record with 172.5 points, breaking the prior record by 2.5 points while four Nittany Lions won individual championships including Carter Starocci and Aaron Brooks both winning their fourth national championships, becoming the sixth and seventh wrestlers all-time to do so.
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The Nittany Lions also broke the NCAA Championships margin of victory record, winning first place by a 100-point margin with the Cornell Big Red finishing in second with 72.5 points.
The night started off strong for the Nittany Lions with heavyweight Greg Kerkvliet defeating Michigan's Lucas Davison with a 13-4 major decision. Kerkvliet took Davison down early in the match and never looked back. Kerkvliet finished his senior season with a perfect 20-0 record and improved his career record to 75-10.
In the Nittany Lions second matchup of the day, Ohio State's Jesse Mendez got the better of Beau Bartlett 4-1 in what was very much a defensive match. Bartlett had the opportunity to win the match in the final minute with the score tied at 1-1 but Mendez was able to counter attack Barlett and get the fall points himself to win the national title at 141. Bartlett finishes his season with a 24-2 record.
At 157 pounds, Levi Haines used a big third period to defeat Arizona State's Jacori Teemer 5-0. It was a slow starting match with neither wrestler showing much interest in attacking in the opening two rounds but a third period takedown gave Barlett a 3-0 lead and that would be all he needed en route to his first national championship. He improved to 23-0 on the season and 47-2 in his career.
Mitchell Mesenbrink, the talented freshman at 165 pounds suffered a heartbreaking loss to Iowa State's David Carr. Carr for much of the match would have the advantage but as Mesenbrink often does, he would make a strong third period push and tied the match at 8-8 heading into the final seconds. However, it appears that Mesenbrink did not know that Carr had the advantage with a bonus point from riding time and chose not to go push for a last second takedown, and would take a 9-8 defeat. It was the first loss of Mesenbrink's career at Penn State. That being said, it seems likely that this was not the last time the world will see Mesenbrink in the national finals.
Penn State, however, would finish off the night in historic fashion as both Carter Starocci and Aaron Brooks won their championship bouts to become four-time national champions. As mentioned above, by doing so, the two become just the sixth and seventh wrestlers all-time to win four national championships.
While the Nittany Lions did not break or tie the record for most individual national champions in one year, the argument could certainly be made that this Penn State team is perhaps the greatest wrestling team of all-time.
For the program as a whole, the national championship marks the 12th in team history and the 11th of the Cael Sanderson era as well as their third national championship in a row. In total, eight Nittany Lions finished as All-Americans at this year's NCAA's in; Beau Bartlett (141), Tyler Kasak (149), Tyler Kasak (149), Levi Haines (157), Mitchell Mesenbrink (165), Carter Starocci (174), Aaron Brooks (197), and Greg Kerkvliet (285).
While not making it out of round one, Nittany Lions 149 pound wrestler Tyler Kasak perhaps had one of the more impressive runs of the tournament, winning seven straight matches following his opening round loss to earn a third place finish which included a win over No. 1 wrestler Ridge Lovett of Nebraska.
STORIES
- Aaron Brooks becomes seventh wrestler to win four NCAA titles
- Carter Starocci makes history, wins fourth NCAA title
- Levi Haines defeates ASU's Jacori Teemer 5-0 to win first NCAA title
FULL NCAA TITLE FINAL MATCHUPS
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS TOP 10 TEAM SCORES
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