Penn State Wrestling: Super32, NCAA Previews, Rankings

Football and wrestling recruiting couldn't be more different.  In wrestling, so long as you have a pair of shoes and shorts, you can go anywhere, face anyone, and make a name for yourself by beating someone ranked more highly.  One of the biggest and baddest places to do that is at the Super32 tournament held in Greensboro, NC.  Last weekend gave us a ton of action.

Flo, as always, has us covered with brackets and results.  If you're a FloPro subscriber, you can watch the matches, too.  Friend of BSD Dan Lobdell has a great post on the guys who had breakout performances.  Here are our PA/NJ and PSU centric takeaways:

• 113lbs: Adam Busiello (NY; PSU verbal) destroyed a very talented, very deep field at 113lbs.   3 falls, 1 tech, 2 majors, and a comfortable 5-2 decision in the final.   Logan Macri (PA-Canon Mac) finished 5th.
• 120lbs: Julian Chlebove (PA-Northampton) took 3rd at 120lbs.  Patrick Glory (NJ-Delbarton) took first.
• 126lbs: Austin DeSanto (PA-Exeter Twp; Drexel commit) finished runner-up to Joey Silva for the second year in a row.  Jacori Teemer (NY) lost to DeSanto in a chippy bout, but wrestled back for 3rd.  Iowa's Alex Thomsen took 5th.  KJ Fenstermacher (PA-Northampton) placed 7th.
• 132lbs: Brian Courtney (PA-Athens; UVA commit) dropped a close one to Mitch Moore (OH), finishing 3rd.  Cornell commit Vitali Arujau took 1st.  Zach Trampe (PA-CR South) was DQ'd in the 5th-place bout, and finished 6th.
• 138lbs: Sammy Sasso (PA-Nazareth) blew everyone away, winning the final by 15-1 major.  Ryan Vulakh (PA-North Penn) and Colin Cronin (PA-Upper Darby) finished 5th and 6th.
• 145lbs: Jared Verkleeren (PA-Hempfield; Iowa State commit) took the crown over Josiah Rider (CO).  Penn State commit Joe Lee (IN) (Nick's younger brother) had a rough day (by his standards), taking 3 losses and finishing 6th.
• 152lbs: top-ranked Brady Berge (MN), long thought to be an upper middle weight, wrestled at 152 - and looked capable of wrestling 149 in college.  So go figure on that one.  Berge's final 3 schools are PSU, Iowa, and Minnesota - though if he can actually wrestle 149, you gotta lean towards Iowa.  Cadet national double-champ (freestyle and greco) Aaron Brooks, from just across the Mason-Dixon line in Hagerstown, MD, lost a close one to Berge in the top half, and fell one win short of the podium.
• 160lbs: Maryland commit Kyle Cochran (NJ-Paramus) took first.  Trent Hidlay (PA-Mifflin County) finished 3rd.  The awesomely named Skitch Light (PA-Central Dauphin) finished 8th.
• 170lbs: PA was shut out here, unless you count former Latrobe resident (now living in Maryland) Ethan Smith, who took 3rd.  Bryce Rogers (FL; Brown commit) took first over Jake Allar (MN; Iowa State commit).
• 182lbs: Nino Bonaccorsi (PA-Bethel Park; Pitt commit) fell 0-6 to Louis DePrez (NY) in the final.  Drew Peck (PA-Chambersburg) knocked off #2-ranked and uber-talented Jelani Embree (MI; Michigan commit) to finish 3rd, which was awesome.
• 195lbs: Virginia Tech commit Jake Borst (VA) won the final 4-3 over Gavin Hoffman (PA-Montoursville), narrowly avoiding a last second takedown by Gavin.  Jake Woodley (PA-North Allegheny) and Joe Doyle (PA-CR South) took 7th and 8th.
• 220lbs: Brian Kennerly (PA-Upper Darby) beat Cole Nye (PA-Bishop McDevitt; Sparty commit) in UTB 5-4 to take the crown.
• 285lbs: Brendan Furman (PA-Canon Mac), unranked, rolled through the field to take first.
• PA kills the upper weights?  What crazy world is this?

Top 3 By State

PA: 4-4-4 = 12

NY: 3-1-1 = 5

NJ: 2-1-1 = 4

MN: 1-2-1 = 4

CO: 0-3-0 = 3

FL: 2-0-0 = 2

CA: 1-1-0 = 2

IL: 0-1-1 = 2

OH: 0-1-1 = 2

IN: 0-0-2 = 2

VA: 1-0-0 = 1

MI: 0-0-1 = 1

MD: 0-0-1 = 1

WA: 0-0-1 = 1

Other Stuff

Christian "Venom" Pyles took a break from the anti-clown crime reporting to give us his predictions for 125 and 133. Nick Suriano is a "title contender", and Jered Cortez gets on the podium.

Sammy the Bull announced that Zeke Moisey will be redshirting this year, removing one more returning AA from the 125 field.

Logan Stieber will be dropping down to 61kg for this November's World Team Trials, held during the Bill Farrell in NYC.

As noted in the post from Dan above, Logan takes time to head to Norman, OK to train with new Sooners coach Lou Roselli.  And Roselli also landed highly ranked Dom Demas (OH), younger brother of Buckeye wrestler Josh.  He's a good coach.

Not that Tan Tom Ryan stops recruiting, mind you.  The Buckeyes recently got commitments from #12 Kaleb Romero (Mechanicsburg, OH) and top-ranked Chase Singletary (Blair Academy), who will likely take over 285 once Kyle Snyder gets done destroying the field.

Speaking of commits, Malvern Prep's Michael Beard chose Northwestern.

Bucknell has a video tour of their new wrestling digs.

The All-Star Classic is starting to fill in. Max Rohskopf (NCST) and Brian Murphy (MICH) will roll at 157.

Intermat released their college pre-season rankings, which include true freshmen.  Penn State (86.5) starts the year in 4th place in the tournament rankings, behind Okie State (112), Iowa (94.5), and Ohio State (93.5).

Gonna be an awfully fun season.