My brother and I went to the Bryce Jordan Center on Friday night to see #1 Penn State defeat #2 Iowa. It was an incredible time, the arena was sold out, and they brought out some cool surprises like the football and women’s soccer teams.
The match started off with some excitement as Marco Vespa immediately took Spencer Lee down, and it looked like he might stick him with a cradle. It did not last very long though, and Lee ended up with a first period tech fall. Fortunately, RBY ended up shocking the place by pinning Teske and giving the Nittany Lions a 6-5 lead. From there things went about as we expected, the Hawkeyes were up 14-12, but that was all the scoring they would do as Starocci, Brooks, Dean, and Kerkvliet ran the table to give Penn State a 23-14 victory. It also marked Cael Sanderson’s 100th Big Ten dual meet win.
If I had one complaint about the match, it was probably the atmosphere at times. Adam and I agreed that the crowd felt flat, especially during those middle weights. I remember watching the match last year at Iowa, and Carver Arena felt like it would explode (at least that was how it appeared on television, I guess if anyone watched this year’s match, did it feel that way at the BJC?). We each had theories as to why. He thinks Penn State fans have become spoiled with the success, and just expect the Nittany Lions to rattle off five or six pins in a row to blow out everyone. I think it also has to do with Pennsylvania being such a dominant wrestling area. I mean, you can go to high school matches that will feature kids who could end up being national champs the next year. That is not an exaggeration. That leads fans to not appreciate just how good all of these wrestlers are.
I am not knocking the crowd, they were amped up at the beginning, and then once the momentum flipped back after 174. They just need to sustain it. There has been the debate for a while now about whether the wrestling team should move permanently to the BJC instead of Rec Hall. If they did wrestler there all the time, the atmosphere would improve. But I just wonder if it would be sustainable for a season? Would there be that level of energy for a match against Indiana?
