True frosh Roman Bravo-Young got our Nittany Lions started with a pair of clutch duck unders in a hard fought winner over 23-Mario Guillen of Ohio to advance to the second round. Then his teammates built on his lead. Penn State finished Session One with a perfect 9-0 mark, including 5 pins and 2 majors.

SESSION ONE RESULTS

UPSETS OF NOTE

285: 28-Stoll (IOWA) DEC 5-Parris (MICH)

184: 26-Geer (OKST) DEC 7-Reenan (NCST)

149: 26-Blees (VATECH) DEC 7-Gfeller (OKST)

133: 24-Fehlman (LHU) DEC 9-Tucker (CORN)

165: 24-McCormick (ARMY) WBF 9-Romero (UVU)

197: 24-Jakobsen (LEH) DEC 9-Honis (CORN)

285: 24-Maley (STAN) DEC 9-Stencel (CMU)

You did NOT want to be a 9-seed this year. 7-Reenan and 7-Gfeller are both badly injured, and smelled like upset candidates for the last month of the year. The smell was not only strong, but accurate. 28-Sam Stall pushed and belly-flopped his way past his ideal opponent, undersized true frosh 5-Mason Parris. Seven stall calls in that one, split 4-3, Parris-Stoll. Kinda wish that ref had called a double disqualification in the first period. Everyone would’ve thanked him for it.

TEAM SCORES - END OF SESSION ONE

1. Penn State: 21 (half a point better than 1997 Iowa; 5 better than 2017 PSU)
2. Ohio State: 15.5
3. Oklahoma State: 14.5
4. Iowa: 14
5. Minnesota: 13.5
6. Missouri: 13
7. PSU Bonus Points: 12
8. Michigan: 10
9. Nebraska: 9.5

Hard to find fault with that start. “PSU Bonus Points” currently sits in 7th place.

WHAT HAPPENS IN SESSION TWO

Session 2 begins at 7pmET on regular ESPN - the big boy pants channel. The first round of consolations will lead off, followed by the Championship round 2 matches. By the time this session ends, around 10pmET tonight, 90 of the 330 wrestlers will have been eliminated. Just less than a third of the field, gone, on day 1.

ALL-TIME TEAMS - END OF SESSION 2

HELPFUL LINKS

Ironhead Byers on radio (Free)

ESPN3 streaming video (Free)

TrackWrestling dashboard (Free)

Penn State Wrestling Club, for live brackets and team scoring