By Allen Smith PSWC Website Committee Member
For those that have followed along during the past two seasons, this is the fourth in a series of articles that dive deeply into the subject of Penn State scoring at the NCAA Wrestling Championships. The focus has been the team scoring record, with last year’s articles a before- the-tournament look at Penn State’s chances of beating the Iowa Hawkeye 28-year old scoring record of 170 set in 1997 (“Chasing 170”), followed by the “sequel” to that article, or Penn State’s result last season, actually setting a new record, 172.5 points (“Chasing 170: The Sequel”). The third article (“Chasing 172.5: The Next Season”), published just before the 2025 NCAA Wrestling Championships was about the potential of the 2025 Penn State team setting a new record and the facts and data behind doing that. If you read those articles, it is my hope that you enjoyed them. This article is the fourth in the series, and will provide the facts and figures of arguably the best team of wrestlers ever assembled at an NCAA Wrestling Championship. The title, “Chasing 172.5: 2025, Another New Record!!”, is a thoughtful reference to points needed for another historical scoring record, and the year it was accomplished, which acts as a date stamp for future readers. With no further ado, let us examine the happenings of the third weekend in March 2025. ENJOY!
Before the NCAA Wrestling Championships started in Philadelphia, it was widely thought that the 2025 version of the Penn State wrestling team was the best ever assembled, even better than the 2024 team which WAS the best ever to hit the mats at a National Championship. Many pundits were saying, almost unanimously that “on paper” the 2025 Penn State wrestling team could set a new standard. Their “data” predicted the potential of upwards of 20 points higher than the 2024 Penn State wrestling team scored if they wrestled a PERFECT tournament. In my article “Chasing 172.5: The Year After”, my data suggested the same, albeit with a disclaimer that noted the traps of the NCAA Wrestling Championship, mainly that the talent level at this tournament is extremely high and upsets by seed are anything but rare. Next as a factor is the injury-bug that could derail a wrestler’s dream in the blink of an eye, and steal team points in a significant way. Both play a huge part in team scoring every year, and 2025 would be no exception.
We know now, after the fact, that the 2025 Penn State wrestling team did set a new team scoring high, at 177 points, outdistancing last year’s total by 4.5 points. This team can be called, legitimately, the best ever, but it was not easy. It never is at the national tournament, as skill, luck, and preparation all come together as storylines for the greatest folkstyle wrestling show on earth. There were disappointments in 2025 for sure, but they were far outweighed by the successes earned by a bunch of gritty, determined young men that wear singlets without names, but PENN STATE in block letters in the front.
To add logic to this article, I shall review the NCAA Wrestling Championship round by round, with the consolation bracket having a section all to itself. Some understanding of tournament scoring is helpful for the reader. A bit of detail for the reader’s benefit was included in the past articles in this series, hopefully making it easier for readers to follow along.
ROUNDS 1 and 2 of the Championship Bracket
For Penn State, all 10 wrestlers took care of business and won their first round and second round bouts, going 20-and-0. To the casual fan, this may seem like the “expected” outcome. After all, the Penn State wrestlers, each and every one, was favored by their seeding, with the closest bout according to seed for the Penn State wrestlers predicted at 133 where No. 8 Braeden Davis wrestled and won against No. 9 Braxton Brown of Maryland in the second round. Long-time followers of this tournament know well that upsets are a huge part of the storylines, however, making the Penn State results for the first two rounds anything but ho-hum. Tournament-wide, there were 26 upsets in the first round out of 160 bouts, and 15 upsets in the second round out of 80 bouts. That calculates to a 17% upset rate, or about one in every six bouts won by the lower seed! At this point in the tournament, team scoring is low in comparison to future rounds. Only Advancement Points and Bonus Points are awarded, with Placement Points coming into play in round 3. After the first two rounds, Penn State scored the maximum possible advancement Points (20), and a significant number of Bonus Points (19.5 on 13 bonus point wins), for a total of 39.5 team points. It was a great start, no doubt.
ROUND 3 of the Championship Bracket
With four No. 1 seeds, three No. 2 seeds, one No. 3 seed, and one No. 4 seed, the Penn State contingent were “predicted” to go 9-1 in the third round, with the No. 8 seed mentioned above the only wrestler that would not be favored on paper as 133 pounder Braeden Davis was facing the No. 1 seed Lucas Byrd. We know that the wrestlers finished 7-3 in the third round of championships, with Luke Lilledahl (125) and Tyler Kasak (157), both No. 1 seeds, taking losses in bouts that went down to the wire. Davis also lost to the No. 1 seed. The other seven wrestlers all won, with Carter Starocci and Josh Barr both winning by major decision, adding two bonus points added to the team’s coffer. But all is not lost when a wrestler loses in the championship bracket, as all three of the noted wrestlers drop to the consolation bracket and can finish as high as third. Losing in any championship round, in a way, dashes the hopes of wrestlers with dreams of an individual national championship. That moment of disappointment must be turned into a fire to continue fighting, in this case Friday evening, as the want and desire to battle back is a physical, mental and emotional one. My experience watching Cael-coached wrestlers is that the fire is burning bright when the wrestlers that lost hit the mat in the next session. For this review, the “predicted” team points took a hit, as I used wrestler’s seeds to estimate points, so at this point in the tournament, my “model” now had to be recalculated 15 points lower (or the difference between a first and third place finish for two wrestlers).
Points-wise, Placement Points start to play a big part in team scoring. A win in this round, the quarterfinals of the tournament and wrestlers earn six Placement Points, as they can finish no lower than sixth place. Also earned is one Advancement Point plus any Bonus Points. With seven wrestlers advancing, 42 Placement Points (7×6), 7 Advancement Points and 2 Bonus Points were added to the team total, which stood at 90.5 (51 for this round plus 39.5 for rounds 1 and 2).
ROUND 4 of the Championship Bracket
With seven Penn State wrestlers advancing to the semifinals, the Penn State wrestlers went 3-4. According to seed, not the best predictor though it is the best available, two Penn State wrestlers lost to a lower seed (Beau Bartlett and Levi Haines lost to the No. 3 seeds), two lost to a higher seed (Shayne Van Ness and Greg Kerkvliet lost to the No. 2 seeds), one beat a higher seed (Josh Barr beat the No. 1 seed), and two won against a lower seed (Mitchell Mesenbrink and Carter Starocci). In a nutshell, this round exemplified the nature of the entire tourney since the beginnings of the NCAA Wrestling Championships in 1928. Wrestling the best-of-the-best generally gives mixed results.
As far as team points, winning in the semifinals is worth another 7 team points, plus Bonus Points. To explain, the winners can finish no worse than second, so 6 more Placement Points as well as 1 Advancement point get added to the team score for each wrestler that moves onto the finals. Adding in the Mesenbrink major decision win (1 Bonus Point), 22 points (18 Placement, 3 Advancement and the 1 Bonus Point) were added to the Penn State team total, now standing at 112.5. A view of the future, and what it would take to set a new team scoring record was starting to take shape. On average, the “predicted” Placement Points overstated the amount earned thus far, to the tune of 20 points or so. Finishing strong as a team was the only way to break the team scoring record.
CONSOLATION ROUNDS!!
Tournaments are generally won or lost in the consolation bracket. This concept is often lost in the minds of some wrestling fans who think all is lost after losing in the championship bracket. NOT SO!! Big team points are available to those guys that can wrestle back for a podium finish after losing in the championship bracket. However, the road is paved with land-mines, as this is a lose-and-you are-done proposition, at least until the round-of-12, also called the “blood round”, and even after that every win can add as much as 5.5 team points for each win. A win in the blood round and a wrestler earns All-American status, finishing no lower than eighth place, while losing wrestlers miss that distinction by one win. It is a dichotomy of feelings, which plays out in all sports, where there will be one person or team on the winning end, and one on the losing end. ABC’s Wide World of Sports said it best years ago with their program using the line “The thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat”. Yet the character building and the delight of competing in the national tournament makes every single wrestler a winner in my book!
I should note here that the consolation round, starting in Session 2, was going on at the same time as the championship bracket, so in a way I am going back in chronological time at times to do this recap, but not by alot. As the earliest losses in the championship bracket happened in round 3 for the Lions, where three wrestlers lost, the drop down to consolations was to round 4, which happens to be the blood round noted above. Each of those three wrestlers were one win from attaining All-American status, while the seven that won in the third round of the championship bracket had already earned a spot on the podium. We know that these three (Lilledahl, Davis and Kasak) won their first consolation bout to earn All-American status, securing a spot in history for Penn State as only the second team EVER to have 10 All-Americans, joining the 2001 Minnesota Golden Gophers. This alone is an amazing accomplishment, but securing the team scoring record was still a possibility. The team scoring here, as all three won close bouts, i.e. no Bonus Points, was 3.5 team points per wrestler, 3 Placement Points for guaranteed eighth place plus .5 Advancement Points. Those 10.5 points added, and Penn State stood at 123 points.
The same three wrestlers hit the mats a second time in Friday night’s session. Again, all three won, with Kasak winning by fall. Now the wrestlers could finish no worse than sixth place, so each wrestler earned three more Placement Points, plus .5 Advancement Point. Add the two Bonus Points for Kasak’s fall and Penn State’s total now stood at 135.5 points. Next up was Saturday morning’s Session 5. What a session it would turn out to be!
Saturday morning’s Session 5 is always amazing, yet is by far the least attended of the six sessions. Wrestlers are a bit beat up and battered from the two days of wrestling prior, yet all that hit the mats Saturday morning still have a chance to advance to the third-place bout, and bring the fight and determination that are a trademark of this session. Every wrestler on Saturday morning has already earned All-American honors, so fighting for self and team bring extra Placement and Advancement points, but for Penn State wrestlers to set a new team scoring standard, it would be Bonus Points that would be key. Still 37.5 points from the record, all that was left were this session and the finals of the championship bracket Saturday night. Even if every wrestler won every bout, a near impossible task given there were 15 bouts yet to wrestle, it would be Bonus Points that ended up carrying the day.
Consolation semifinals were wrestled first, and six of seven Penn State wrestlers in consolation action would hit the mats. With an amazing tournament run behind him, Greg Kerkvliet would medically forfeit his consolation bouts, finishing sixth to earn All-American honors, doing so on one good leg. His performance went a long way towards helping Penn State set a new record, and his determination under difficult circumstances would be an inspiration to his teammates! Penn State wrestlers went 5-1 in this round, the winners now finishing no worse than fourth place, adding another 3.5 Placement and Advancement Points to Penn State’s total. That totaled 17.5 team points (3.5×5), and when adding a Van Ness pin (2 Bonus points), Penn State added 19.5 points which now stood at 155 with only placement bouts for 1 st (wrestled Saturday night), 3rd , 5th and 7th remaining.
An explanation here is in order. As wrestlers cannot “advance” anymore, there are no Advancement Points for the placement bouts. Winning a 3rd , 5th , or 7th Place bout is only worth one placement point, so in theory at this point in time, each wrestler needed to win their final bout, AND most would have to win by Bonus Points to secure a chance at the team scoring record. What followed was one of the most amazing displays of wrestling I have ever witnessed. Granted, the finals of the past steal the show as memorable events, Penn State having as many as five national champs (2017 and 2022), but the 2025 placement bouts in consolation action make my top five list of memorable rounds at the national championships all-time for Penn State.
Six wrestlers hit the mats, and all six won! With two falls and four major decisions, EVERY PENN STATE WRESTLER HAD A BONUS POINT WIN! Lilledahl started the Bonus Point barrage with a Fall. Davis followed with another Fall. Bartlett won by major decision. Van Ness added another major decision. Kasak earned a major decision. Haines wrapped up consolation action with another major decision. The energy the Lions brought was tangible, and felt like it was building to a crescendo up to and including the Haines bout. It was remarkable. In the end, five wrestlers finished in third place, while one finished in fifth. Overall, in wrestled bouts the Penn State contingent went 17-1 in consolation action! The six wins added six Placement Points, and the Bonus Point total for the placement bouts stood at eight points. Penn State’s total points were now 169.
FINALS of the Championship Bracket
Thanks to the Saturday morning heroics of the wrestlers, Penn State needed one win in the finals to set a new team scoring record. As unlikely as it looked earlier in the day, it now appeared highly likely that a new scoring record would be set. With three wrestlers in the finals, all three bouts went according to seed. Mitchell Mesenbrink won the title at 165 pounds, Carter Starocci won at 184 pounds, while freshman-eligible Josh Barr, the No. 4 seed, lost to the No. 2 seed. Worth noting here is the fact that Barr injury-defaulted at the Big Ten Wrestling Championships less than two weeks before this tourney. Credit the trainer and medical team for getting Barr ready, but also to Barr himself, as he wrestled smart bouts throughout in earning his spot in the finals, already earning 3.5 team points (3 Placement Points plus .5 Advancement Point) above what was projected for a No. 4 seed.
Winning in the finals adds four Placement Points – the difference between a first and second place finish – so 8 team points were added to the Penn State total with the two wins. With 177 points, the Lions added a team accolade to the individual accomplishments. The 2025 Penn State Nittany Lion wrestling team is indeed, the best team ever in my book.
