CROWDED HOUSE: A matchup between the No. 1 Nittany Lions and No. 2 Ohio State Buckeyes last February was contested before 16,006 fans in the Bryce Jordan Center, resetting the NCAA wrestling indoor record. Whether they’re watching in a packed BJC or the cozier confines of Rec Hall, Penn State wrestling fans are among the most knowledgeable and passionate in any sport. “I think they genuinely appreciate when there is great wrestling, whether it’s a Penn State wrestler or an opponent,” says longtime radio announcer Jeff Byers ’92 Com. “The respect they have for great opponents has been pretty apparent over the years.”
FIRST OF MANY
The Nittany Lions claimed the 2011 team title, their first since 1953, in Sanderson’s second season. Quentin Wright (below) took down Lehigh’s Robert Hamlin in the 184-pound national final to become the first of what is now 22 individual national champs to wrestle for Sanderson. “The fan base was ecstatic; that’s what they’d been wishing for all those years,” says Wright ’13 Bus, ’13, ’15 MA Lib. “There were so many diehards that had tickets since the ’60s. It was something they all really latched on to. It
was so much fun to see and be able to bring back to that community and those fans.”
MEETING THE MOMENT
He would go on to win three national championships in his career, but Zain Retherford’s upset victory over eventual four-time NCAA champion Logan Stieber of Ohio State during a dual meet in his freshman season in 2013 might be his most memorable win. His takedown of Stieber in extra time was an opportunity he had been waiting for, and the 11th win of what would become a perfect 27-0 regular season for the 141-pounder. “If I was going to take the elevator, the coaches would say, ‘Logan Stieber is taking the stairs,’” Retherford ’18, ’24 MBA Bus recalls. “My teammates helped prepare me, and then beating him, and having Rec Hall go nuts, was super fun.”
NEVER OUT OF IT
Penn State trailed Ohio State by 10 points at the half of their regular-season match against Ohio State in February 2018 in sold-out Rec Hall. Buckeyes star heavyweight Kyle Snyder would later tell Retherford that his team was celebrating like it had already won. Instead, the Nittany Lions came roaring back to earn a 19-18 win on the strength of big wins by Vincenzo Joseph ’20 Lib, Bo Nickal ’19 H&HD, and Anthony Cassar ’19 Lib (above). “That was the most intense dual meet that had sustained intensity for five or six matches in a row that I ever experienced,” says longtime fan and former Penn State Wrestling Club president Harvey Manbeck ’63, ’65 MS Eng.
SIGNATURE PIN
Cassar went 49-3 during a stellar Nittany Lion career that included a 2019 NCAA title at 285 pounds. But one of his favorite matches was one he watched on television from his couch at home—teammate Nickal’s pin of Ohio State’s Myles Martin in the 184-pound final of the 2018 NCAA championships, which clinched the Nittany Lions’ seventh national title in eight seasons. “I was in a solemn mood, but when I saw that match, I just could not hold it in,” Cassar says. “I was jumping up and down.”
TWO STRONG
Cassar bested Minnesota freshman sensation Gable Steveson in the 2019 Big Ten Championship final, but his next match against him, in the national heavyweight semifinals, had more at stake. He defeated Steveson 4-3, as he had in the conference final, then beat top-seeded Derek White of Oklahoma State with a 10-1 major decision to claim his long-awaited national title. “I felt like I solidified that the first [Steveson win] wasn’t a fluke,” says Cassar. “Everyone to this day thinks that was the finals. It did, in a way, feel like that. I knew that if I could win that match and climb that mountain, I wasn’t going to take second after that.”
HISTORY IN THE MAKING
The Nittany Lions won their 77th straight dual meet on Dec. 20, 2025, shutting out Stanford 42-0 to surpass a 76-win Oklahoma State streak that had stood since 1951. (Penn State had also put together a 60-match win streak from 2015 to 2019.) That streak stands at 86 consecutive wins as they enter the 2026-27 season. The wrestlers who made it happen hope to see this unprecedented run of success continue. “When you break a record or set a new standard, the goal isn’t for it to not be broken, it’s to inspire another generation to break it,” says four-time national champion Aaron Brooks ’24 H&HD. “At the end of the day, it’s a dynasty.”
WOLVERINE DECLAWED
Brooks was one of two Nittany Lions to finish a standout career with at least four national titles; teammate Carter Starocci ’24 H&HD is the only wrestler to ever win five. Brooks’ second, capped by his 5-3 win over Olympic bronze medalist Myles Amine of Michigan (below) in 2022, was particularly satisfying. “That was a testimony to bouncing back. I’d beaten Myles earlier in the year and lost to him at Big Tens [in the finals],” Brooks says. “Winning four was cool, but that second one was definitely special to me.”
TONE SETTERS
Associate head coaches Cody Sanderson (below, in blue sweatshirt) and Casey Cunningham (above, standing) have been with the program during Cael Sanderson’s entire Penn State tenure; former wrestler Nick Lee ’21 H&HD (below, in white sweatshirt) joined the staff in 2024. From identifying talent to helping wrestlers reach their potential, the Lions’ staff is the envy of the sport. “The leaders pour into the followers, and that makes the best type of team or organization,” Brooks says. “Anything [Cael] tells you to do, he’s already done or is doing. Every single coach in that room has that mindset.”
