The Penn State wrestling team won five national NCAA individual wrestling championships and the 2022 team title on March 19, 2022. The five national championships were won based on the performances by Roman Bravo-Young, Nick Lee, Carter Starocci, Aaron Brooks and Max Dean. This is the ninth time in 11 years when the Penn State Wrestling Team has become D1 NCAA Wrestling Champions led by Coach Cael Sanderson.
Penn State sports journalism student Jameson Kramer describes how good it felt to see Penn State win the championship as an avid wrestling fan.
“In the last two years they haven’t lost a single finals match, so I think it has been a great experience as a fan to see them go that far. I was kind of surprised to see that all five of them actually won even though they were pretty much all favored.”
On Saturday, the Penn State wrestling team traveled with nine wrestlers to Detroit, Michigan. Of the five champions, four of them )Bravo-Young, Lee, Starocci and Brooks) wrestled again in the final championship, while Dean wrestled for the first time as Nittany Lion, as he was previously a transfer from Cornell University. They faced up against wrestlers from other universities such as Iowa, Michigan and more. The Nittany Lions competed in a winning performance in several bouts that resulted in a 5-0 win during the medal round.
Some of the highlights of the night came from most of the individual champions and other wrestlers on the team. Four of the lions (Bravo-Young, Lee, Starocci and Brooks) defended their 2021 championship titles while newcomer Dean won his first NCAA championship by defeating Jacob Warner in a 3-2 victory. Greg Krekvilet has unofficially aided in this win by the Nittany Lions against Michigan’s Mason Parris before he has to forfeit into fourth place due to injury.
Bravo-Young defeated Daton Fix from Oklahoma state 20 seconds into the bout. Lee then went on to defeat North Carolina’s Kizhan Clarke by hitting four takedowns to win a second title. Starocci defeated Virginia Tech’s Mekhi Lewis by another takedown in overtime. Finally, Brooks defeated Michigan rival Myles Anime by scoring three major decisions and scoring a victory-winning takedown.
Penn State wrestler Nick Lee has expressed how winning the championship meant to him and the other Penn State wrestlers through the hard work that paid off.
“I think coming up and growing up with some of the younger guys and helping them along and kind of seeing the fruits of our labor, so to speak, is really awesome and it feels really right.”
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