Penn State Keeps Breaking the Field, Brackets Get Wrecked, and Friday Is Coming for Everybody: NCAA Wrestling Session II Recap

If anybody was still pretending this tournament was wide open after Session I, Session II should have put that nonsense to bed.

Penn State is not sneaking up on anybody. They are not “just surviving.” They are not getting by.

They are beating the brakes off this tournament.

Through two sessions, the Nittany Lions look exactly like what they are: the best team in the country, the deepest team in the country, and the one program that showed up Thursday night ready to rip this thing away from everybody else before Friday even got here.

They sent 8 of 10 wrestlers to the quarterfinals, and 6 of those 8 earned bonus points. That is not just winning. That is suffocating the field.

And while Penn State kept doing Penn State things, the rest of the tournament started catching fire. At-large guys made noise. Double-digit seeds started kicking in doors. Big names got clipped. Brackets got scrambled. And now heading into Friday, Penn State has control, while everybody else is left trying to stop the bleeding.

Penn State Did What Dynasties Do

This is the part people keep overthinking every March.

When a dynasty has the best guys, the deepest lineup, and the most dudes capable of putting up bonus, sometimes the obvious pick is the right pick because they are just better.

That was Penn State in Session II.

From 133 through 197, they were an absolute nightmare.

Marcus Blaze and Levi Haines teched their guys.
Rocco Welsh and Josh Barr put up majors.
Shayne Van Ness and PJ Duke got pins.

That is how you break a team race open before the tournament even gets fun.

Every round, there are programs out there grinding just to stay alive, and Penn State is over here racking up advancement points and bonuses like it is a video game. By the end of the night, the scoreboard looked exactly how the session felt: Penn State in command and the rest of the country fighting over scraps behind them.

Team Race? Penn State Is Driving, Everybody Else Is Chasing

The Nittany Lions are sitting at 40.5 team points after Session II, and that number is brutal when you look at what it covers.

Nebraska is second at 27.0, meaning Penn State carries a 13.5-point lead into the quarterfinals.

Behind that? Absolute bar fight.

Just 4 points separate second from fifth. Nebraska is clinging to that runner-up spot, but Iowa, Oklahoma State, and Ohio State are all right there, breathing down its neck.

So yes, there is still a team race.

It is just not for the first right now.

Penn State has already made this thing feel like a fight for second unless somebody lands a haymaker Friday.

The Biggest Themes of Session II

Penn State’s bonus train is very real

This is the biggest thing people need to understand.

Penn State is not just advancing. They are scoring in chunks.

That matters because at this stage of the tournament, everybody still has good wrestlers alive. The difference is whether your guys are winning 3-2 or ending matches early. Penn State is ending them early.

That is why the lead feels bigger than just the number on the board.

The brackets started breaking all over the place

This is where Session II got beautiful.

The chalk crowd took some damage Thursday night.

• Jacob Moran majored in Nic Bouzakis

• Chance Lamer beat Collin Gaj

• Cesar Alvan pinned LaDarion Lockett in a sudden victory

• Danny Wask beat Simon Ruiz

• Brian Soldano beat James Conway

• Remy Cotton put it on Rocky Elam

• Juan Mora took out an injured Nick Feldman

That is real bracket damage.

Not fake “wow, what an upset” noise that does not actually matter. These are results that change semifinal paths, All-American paths, and trophy paths. This is the kind of stuff that makes Thursday night matter.

The quarterfinals are now loaded.

This is what makes Friday so good.

We are not just getting the expected stars. We are getting stars mixed with wrecking balls, hot hands, and dudes who already busted what the bracket was “supposed” to look like.

That is when the tournament goes from great to insane.

Quarterfinals Preview

125

Luke Lilledahl vs. Dean Peterson
Troy Spratley vs. Sheldon Seymour
Jacob Moran vs. Jore Volk
Marc-Anthony McGowan vs. Eddie Ventresca

This weight has real star power, but it also has that feeling where somebody new is about to grab the spotlight. Moran blowing up Bouzakis changed the whole vibe here.

133

Jax Forrest vs. Markel Baker
Kyler Larkin vs. Aaron Seidel
Marcus Blaze vs. Drake Ayala
Lucas Byrd vs. Ben Davino

This bracket is absurd. It feels like a battle between the proven names and the next wave all at once. There is a real world where we get three or four first-year students in the semis, which is crazy and says everything about how loaded this weight is.

141

Jesse Mendez vs. Vance Vombaur
Luke Stanich vs. Anthony Echemendia
Brock Hardy vs. Vince Cornella
Nasir Bailey vs. Sergio Vega

This might be one of the most physical weights in the whole tournament. So many of the top teams have somebody alive here, and it feels like every match is going to be ugly in the best way.

149

Shayne Van Ness vs. Casey Swiderski
Chance Lamer vs. Carter Young
Cross Wasilewski vs. Lachlan McNeil
Jaxon Joy vs. Aden Valencia

This bracket is cooked to perfection. We are guaranteed a double-digit seed in the semis, and that tells you how much chaos has already hit this weight. The favorite is still alive, but the road around him is a mess.

157

PJ Duke vs. Brandon Cannon
Landon Robideau vs. Kaleb Larkin
Meyer Shapiro vs. Ty Watters
Antrell Taylor vs. Kannon Webster

First off, big respect to former Colorado state champ and cancer survivor Brandon Cannon out of Ponderosa. That is an awesome story, no matter what happens next.

And match-wise, Shapiro vs. Watters is my favorite quarterfinal on the board right now. Funky. Dangerous. Weird. Could you sign me up?

165

Mitchell Mesenbrink vs. Bryce Hepner
Cesar Alvan vs. Nico Ruiz
Mikey Caliendo vs. EJ Parco
Joey Blaze vs. Will Denny

Joey Blaze is wrestling like a monster right now.

But Mesenbrink still feels like the guy everybody is trapped in the bracket with. He has not lost in a year and a half, and he looks like the single most miserable person in America to wrestle right now—just relentless misery for seven minutes.

174

Levi Haines vs. Beau Mantanona
Carson Kharchla vs. Patrick Kennedy
Chris Minto vs. MJ Gaitan
Danny Wask vs. Cam Steed

Everybody can keep talking themselves into finding cracks here, but Levi Haines looks completely dialed in. The only guy who really gave him a serious test this year was Minto, and even then, Levi looks like he is hitting another gear at exactly the right time.

184

Rocco Welsh vs. Silas Allred
Brock Mantanona vs. Brian Soldano
Max McEnelly vs. Eddie Neitenbach
Angelo Ferrari vs. Aedon Sinclair

People keep saying 184 is wide open.

That just tells me they are sleeping on Rocco Welsh.

Could somebody beat him? Sure. That is March.

But acting like this weight has no guy to fear is ridiculous. I am not buying that. I was high on Welsh coming in, and I am not backing off now.

197

Josh Barr vs. Angelo Posada
Joey Novak vs. Colton Hawks
Stephen Little vs. Camden McDanel
Cody Merrill vs. Remy Cotton

This weight is wild.

Colton Hawks came into the tournament with an 8-9 record, and now he is one win away from the semifinals and All-American status. That is exactly the kind of story only this tournament can produce.

And now you add in Remy Cotton blowing up Rocky Elam’s side of the bracket? Yeah, this one is chaos with real consequences.

285

Yonger Bastida vs. Ben Kueter
AJ Ferrari vs. Juan Mora
Taye Ghadiali vs. Hunter Catka
Isaac Trumble vs. Konner Doucet

Once Feldman went down, the heavyweight bracket changed in a hurry. That door is open now, and AJ Ferrari has a very real path to the semis and a chance to stay on track for a third NCAA final and second national title.

Heavyweight went from “interesting” to “watch this now” in a hurry.

Final Thoughts on Session II

By the end of this round, we had nine total upsets, and the brackets are officially unstable.

Penn State looks like Penn State.
The brackets are getting weird.
And the fight behind first is an absolute mess.

Ohio State took a real shot, losing Bouzakis and Feldman in the same round.
Oklahoma State somehow kept itself afloat even with LaDarion Lockett getting pinned in overtime, which says a lot about how much damage other teams took, too.

That is the story of Session II.

Penn State is in control.
Everybody else is trying to survive.
And Friday will decide whether this turns into a coronation or a war.

That is exactly how this tournament should feel.