No. 1 Penn State Wrestling Tops Ohio State After a Few Nervous Moments Early

The Nittany Lions wrestled without two starters and gave up a rare pin but still won their 69th consecutive match.

Penn State’s Beau Bartlett set the stage for a big postseason, defeating defending national champion Jesse Mendez to highlight the Nittany Lions’ 27-13 win over Ohio State on Friday night in Columbus. Top-ranked Penn State won its 69th consecutive match dating to 2020, though it did so with a few nervous moments.

Penn State (13-0, 7-0 Big Ten) wrestled without two starters, gave up its first fall in a dual this season and nearly allowed another. No. 8 Ohio State (13-3) became the first team to win three bouts against Penn State this season, though two were against true freshmen making their college wrestling debuts. But Bartlett’s win, a key decision from Shayne Van Ness and Penn State’s dominance from 165-197 were the difference.

Penn State Vs. Ohio State Bout by Bout

125: No. 21 Brendan McCrone (OSU) pin no. 7 Luke Lilledahl 3:58: The Buckeyes got off to a rousing start, as McCrone caught Lilledahl in a second-period cradle for a surprising fall. The loss was Lilledahl’s second of the season and marked the first time a Penn State starter has been pinned this season. Lilledahl (13-2) scored a pair of first-period takedowns and led 6-2, but McCrone (19-7) demonstrated some strength in turning Lilledahl for his eighth pin of the season.

133: No. 8 Braeden Davis (PS) dec. No. 11 Nic Bouzakis 8-5: Davis, wrestling for the first time since Jan. 24, gutted out a needed early decision for the Nittany Lions, even though he got caught in a cradle like Lilledahl. Bouzakis got a reversal with the move but no back points, which proved key. Davis (8-2) scored a third-period takedown, gave up another reversal and defended Bouzakis’ late attacks for the win. Davis looked weary but prevented Bouzakis (18-6) from scoring at the finish.

141: No. 3 Beau Bartlett (PS) dec. No. 1 Jesse Mendez 4-2: Bartlett avenged three straight losses to Mendez, including for Big Ten and NCAA titles last year, with an assertive victory to remain unbeaten at 16-0. As in their past four meetings, one takedown decided the bout. This time that takedown belonged to Bartlett, who scored on Mendez (23-1) in the first period. They traded escapes after that, and Bartlett fended off Mendez’s late attacks in the third. That included a sly spin move by Bartlett before giving up a penalty point for stalling. This perhaps was the first of three meetings (not counting their NWCA All-Star Classic exhibition bout, which Mendez won last November) between the wrestlers this season.

149: No. 2 Shayne Van Ness (PS) dec. No. 7 Dylan D’Emilio 4-2: Van Ness worked his offense for the final 20 seconds of the third period, finally hitting the takedown with 4 seconds left to edge D’Emilio in an entertaining bout. Van Ness (15-1) somehow evaded getting taken down in the second period by rolling through a slam by D’Emilio, who couldn’t maintain control. Van Ness went on the attack late, and D’Emilio dodged two attempts but couldn’t avoid the third. A key win for Penn State in the team scoring.

157: Brandon Cannon (OSU) dec. Joe Sealey 10-1: Instead of a match between ranked wrestlers Tyler Kasak and Sammy Sasso, the teams sent out backups. Cannon, a redshirt freshman wrestling in place of the Buckeyes’ Sasso, looked impressive in getting the major decision. Cannon (14-2) controlled the bout, hitting two takedowns, in welcoming the Penn State freshman to college wrestling. Sealey, one of the top-ranked recruits of the 2024 high school class, made his Penn State debut in place of the injured Kasak. Sealey was a two-time national prep champ at Wyoming Seminary and won a U17 world title in 2022. Penn State trailed at the break, 10-9, for the first time this season.

165: No. 1 Mitchell Mesenbrink (PS) tech. fall Brock Herman 19-4: Mesenbrink scored his NCAA-leading 14th technical fall of the season against an overmatched Herman, who move up a weight class to face the nation’s top-ranked wrestler at this weight class. Mesenbrink (17-0) has been taken to the full 7 minutes just once this season and won that bout by 14. He finished this technical fall in the second period.

174: No. 1 Levi Haines (PS) dec. No. 5 Carson Kharchla 6-4: Haines (15-1) wrestled his closest Big Ten bout of the season but remained unbeaten in the conference for his career with a solid decision. Trailing 4-3 in the third, Haines hit a counterattack and held on for the takedown through Kharchla’s attempted roll. Haines gave up just his second takedown of the season but countered when it mattered and added one point for riding time. The loss was the first of the season for Kharchla (11-1).

184: No. 1 Carter Starocci (PS) technical fall No. 18 Ryder Rogotzke 22-7 in 7:00: Starocci (16-0) hit seven takedowns for his 15th bonus-point win of the season. What makes Starocci elite is his relentlessness. He scored a takedown in the final 10 seconds that, coupled with riding time, gave him the technical fall.

197: No. 3 Josh Barr (PS) technical fall No. 23 Seth Shumate 20-5 in 7:00: Barr (13-1) put on another third-period show, scoring five takedowns for the technical fall. Barr led 4-0 after two periods before taking it to Shumate for his fourth technical fall of the season. It was reminiscent of Barr’s win over Rutgers’ John Poznanski, when he scored 22 third-period points.

285: No. 9 Nick Feldman (OSU) dec. Cole Mirasola 10-3: Another Penn State true freshman made his college debut, as Mirasola wrestled in place of unbeaten Greg Kerkvliet, out with an illness. Feldman hit the first takedown and never trailed in capping the match with an Ohio State decision.