Lions close strong to beat Ohio State
Nazareth’s Sammy Sasso wins by decision at 149 for Buckeyes
Penn State wrestling took seven of the 10 matches in its Friday night dual with the No. 12 Ohio State Buckeyes to secure a 28-12 win in Columbus. The Buckeyes managed to tie the match with four bouts remaining but the Nittany Lions earned the final four victories to move to 5-0 overall and in the Big Ten this season.
The dual started at 125 pounds with Penn State freshman Robbie Howard losing to No. 10 Malik Heinselman in a close 5-2 decision.
It was clear very early that Penn State — as it generally does — would have an advantage at 133 pounds. No. 3 Roman Bravo-Young notched three first-period takedowns on his way to a 27-8 technical fall win.
No. 2 Nick Lee kept the good times rolling for the Nittany Lions at 141 pounds earning a takedown of Ohio State freshman Dylan D’Emilio in the match’s first minute. He earned yet another takedown less than a minute later and turned that into two near-fall points and a 6-1 lead at the horn on the way to a 15-3 major decision victory.
True freshman Beau Bartlett made his debut for Penn State at 149 pounds, taking on one of the country’s best in No. 2 Sammy Sasso, a former Nazareth High School star. Bartlett opened the match’s scoring with a takedown, but it was Sasso who ended the period with the 3-2 lead after earning an escape and a takedown with seconds on the clock.
The Buckeye earned another quick escape to open the second period in an otherwise scoreless period. He was able to close out the 5-3 decision win by riding out almost the entire period and earning a riding time point in the process.
No. 8 Brady Berge and Ohio State’s Elijah Cleary went scoreless until the Nittany Lion earned the escape to open the second period. Berge was able to secure a takedown in the match’s final 10 seconds to lock up a 3-1 decision.
After the intermission, Penn State’s No. 14 Joe Lee took on the higher-ranked No. 10 Ethan Smith. Lee took injury time in the middle of the first period and Smith scored the match’s first point on the ensuing escape. Lee went up 2-1 with a takedown of his own, but Smith was able to reverse Lee and turn him, earning the pin at 2:34 in the match.
Penn State needed to get momentum back in its direction after Smith tied the match at 12 and that needed to start with No. 5 Carter Starocci taking on No. 3 Kaleb Romero at 174 pounds. Neither wrestler scored in the first period, but Starocci went up 1-0 on an escape to start the second period.
Both Romero and Starocci nearly secured takedowns in the second but the match stayed 1-0 until Romero opened the third period with an escape to make it 1-1.
It stayed that way to force sudden victory for Starocci’s second match in a row. Starocci took bottom to start the tiebreakers round and earned an escape point to go up 2-1. He then rode out Romero for all 30 seconds to lock up the 2-1 win.
No. 2 Aaron Brooks kept the momentum rolling for Penn State against No. 20 Rocky Jordan at 184 pounds with a 13-4 major decision.
No. 16 Michael Beard made quick work of Ohio State’s Gavin Hoffman at 197 pounds, pinning the Buckeye in 1:20 to secure the team victory at 25-12 with only the heavyweight bout remaining.
Next match: Maryland at Penn State, Feb. 22, 6 p.m.