Last week, Penn State shot to the top of the intermat tournament rankings after Spencer Lee announced he was undergoing season-ending surgery; this week, after former CMU wrestler Drew Hildebrandt entered the lineup for Penn State (and highly touted freshman Drake Ayala entered the lineup for the Hawkeyes), PSU is number one in the dual meet rankings as well. There’s debates to be had over both, but luckily those debates will be settled in the coming weeks (in Ann Arbor and Iowa City).
This weekend’s action likely won’t tell us much more than we already knew about the 2021-2022 Nittany Lion wrestling squad, but it’s always good to see the team against another ranked opponent—even one that’s both suffered AND benefitted from some transfers in the offseason like Rutgers has.