Penn State Wrestling: Nittany Lions Can Reach a Win Streak Milestone This Weekend

Beau Bartlett, the Penn State senior wrestler in his fifth year with the Nittany Lions, noted something remarkable recently. He has not lost a dual match wrestling for the Penn State wrestling team. The realization made him pause and smile.

“I don’t know what it’s like to lose a college dual, and that’s an awesome feeling,” Bartlett told reporters in State College this week. “You’re never surrounded by 20 people who are upset. You’re surrounded by guys who are teching people, pinning guys, having awesome matches and everywhere in between. So it motivates you to keep going so you’re not surrounded by people who are licking their cuts and bruises.”

Top-ranked Penn State (12-0) can reach a win-streak milestone this weekend when it visits Ohio State and Illinois to conclude the Big Ten regular season. With wins over the Buckeyes and Illini, the Nittany Lions would press their winning streak from 68 to 70 consecutive matches, which would be the second-longest streak in NCAA Division I men’s wrestling history. Penn State also would become just the second team in men’s major college wrestling to win 70 consecutive dual matches, joining record-holder Oklahoma State, which won 76 straight from 1937-51.

RELATED: Penn State vs. Ohio State preview

The win streak underscores Penn State’s recent dominance over major college wrestling, though the program seldom even mentions it. Penn State does not refer to the win streak in its media releases, and coach Cael Sanderson discusses it only through his program’s core mission.

“There’s a higher standard than winning and losing,” Sanderson said after the Nittany Lions beat Iowa 30-8 in late January. “That’s a pretty low standard. Performance and our effort and our attitude is always going to be a higher standard than winning or losing.”

Penn State last lost a dual match Jan. 31, 2020, a 19-17 decision to Iowa at a sold-out Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Since then, the program has won 68 consecutive matches (40 in the Big Ten) and three NCAA team titles. This season, Penn State has dominated its dual-match schedule. The Nittany Lions have outscored their 12 opponents by a combined total of 493-37. No team has won more than two bouts in a single match againt the Nittany Lions, who have shut out five of their 12 opponents.

As a result, Penn State is entering rare air in the college wrestling win-streak world. The Nittany Lions’ current 68-match win streak ranks fifth all-time among Division I men’s program, according to Jason Bryant of Mat Talk Online, which has compiled the nation’s longest win streaks across all divisions. Oklahoma State has three of the five longest Division I men’s win streaks, sitting at No. 1 (with 76) and is tied with Iowa for second at 69 (a streak the Cowboys have achieved twice).

By winning its final three matches (Penn State closes the regular season Feb. 21 against American), Penn State would end the season with 71 consecutive victores. Which means, Penn State could break Oklahoma State’s men’s Division I record in its sixth dual match of the 2025-26 season. When could that happen? Probably some time in January 2026, depending on the schedule (which has not been announced).

Penn State has a few years of winning to break the all-time college wrestling win streak of 117 matches, which NAIA Grand View set from 2013-22. Penn State visits Ohio State at 7 p.m. ET Friday looking for its 13th win of the season and 69th in the five-year streak.