Cornhuskers finished 2nd to Penn State at last season's NCAAs.
Penn State coach Cael Sanderson says he's looking forward to the final stretch of the dual-meet season. Joe Hermitt | jhermitt@pennlive.comYes, Penn State wrestled against Iowa in January and ably met that challenge, but now it’s go-time with the stretch of conference foes Nebraska, Michigan and Ohio State on the docket in the next two weeks.
The top-ranked Nittany Lions host No.5 Nebraska at 8 p.m. Friday at Bryce Jordan Center, travel to Michigan on Feb.6 and host a powerful Ohio State squad on Feb. 13, also at the BJC. “Yeah, we love it. It’s part of what you look forward to,” Penn State coach Cael Sanderson said at his Wednesday afternoon media access. “Obviously, our staff’s been coaching for a long time, so it’s these matches and the conference and the nationals that really make what we do a lot of fun and just being prepared and excited to go compete when the lights are on here against great competition.The Lions will be heavy favorites against Nebraska and Michigan, and the raw numbers back it up. Penn State has outscored its 11 foes this season 480-19, holding teams to an average of not quite two points per match. In 110 bouts in the 11 matches, Penn State is 104-6 and has a takedown advantage of 356-27.But that doesn’t mean that Friday’s match against the Cornhuskers on the Big Ten Network isn’t a big match, with six likely top-10 bouts including a pair of top-five matches. And it’s Nebraska. The two teams have wrestled 21 times over the years and Penn State leads that series 13-7-1. But the Cornhuskers haven’t notched a win in the series since the season before Sanderson became Penn State’s head coach in 2009. The Huskers, who finished second to Penn State at the NCAA Championships in Philadelphia last year, have lost five times, twice each to Ohio State and Oklahoma State and once to Iowa. “They’ve lost some matches, but they’re to the top teams in the in the country,” Sanderson said. “Coming off of a really outstanding national tournament, there’s always going to be really high expectations. I don’t know why maybe they started off a little slow, but they’re right back where they want to be, so we need to be ready to wrestle here and in the Big Tens and then at the nationals.” Sanderson and his staff competed against veteran Nebraska coach Mark Manning prior to coming to Penn State. “He’s a great competitor, and obviously very passionate. He has one of the top programs every year … very consistent,” Sanderson said about Manning. “Before we came to Penn State, we wrestled them in the Big 12. That was one of our more competitive rivalries there. Every year, they’re really good, and they always have a really good dual-meet team.”When a team averages 32 takedowns per match, its wrestlers are looking to score. Many times has a Penn State wrestler scored anywhere from seven to nine takedowns in a match this year, but top-ranked 149-pounder Shayne Van Ness put nine takedowns in the book in just four minutes during a 51-0 win at Maryland last Saturday. Van Ness was taken down and cradled by No.9 Carter Young and trailed 7-1 after the opening three minutes. The next four were all Van Ness as the redshirt junior took Young down five times in the second period and four more in the third during a 31-15 technical fall victory. “Yeah, I think that’s just a good lesson, especially with scoring the way it is now; you can make mistakes and you can come back so it’s really not that big of a deal,” Sanderson said. “In his case, he gave up back points also, and still there was so much time . More than anything, it’s just a great lesson for our guys and, obviously, for Shayne himself, that if we give up a takedown or give up a few points, it’s not a big deal. It’s just part of the part of competing, and with three-point takedowns, you can get back in there real fast.”Redshirt junior 141-pounder Aaron Nagao, an All-America at Minnesota prior to transferring to Penn State, reinjured a surgically repaired shoulder and is out for the season.“He’s got a long road to recovery again, and one he just came back from so he’ll have to figure that out,” Sanderson said. “It’s not my place to answer for him on that.”
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