University of Minnesota Athletics
University of Minnesota
Penn State
Players Mentioned
Minnesota Falls 31-10 to Defending Champion Penn State
2/9/2020 3:29:00 PM | Wrestling
MINNEAPOLIS - The University of Minnesota wrestling program fell to the No.2 Penn State Nittany Lions 31-10 on Sunday afternoon.Â
Brayton Lee rallied for the Gophers first victory of the day when he notched the final three takedowns against Jared Verkleeren to earn the 7-5 victory. Lee, the sixth-ranked wrestler at 149-pounds had trailed 3-0 entering the final stanza but a pair of leg attacks earned him overtime before he finished the deal.Â
In the very next match Ryan Thomas continued the Gophers momentum with a rally of his own. Thomas got the final takedown in the third period and came out on top with a 5-4 victory to send the team into intermission with two straight victories.Â
Top-ranked Gable Steveson took care of business against No.16 Seth Nevills and now has victories over heavyweight wrestlers from all 13 other Big Ten schools. The win is Steveson's 10th of the season with ninth bonus point victories in that span. Across his young career Steveson now has 45 career victories with only two losses.
Garrett Joles excited the crowd with a narrow 6-5 loss to No.16 Shakur Rasheed where he was in on the winning takedown but couldn't finish the leg attack. Devin Skatzka also scored late points against No.2 Mark Hall but still dropped the decision.Â
Minnesota hits the road for the team's final road dual of the year as they prepare for the top-ranked Iowa Hawkeyes in Carver-Hawkeye Arena next Saturday night.
The Gophers return home for a February 21 meeting against the Nebraska Cornhuskers to close out the 2019-20 regular season.Â
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Full Results (Numbers listed are FloWrestling rankings)
125: Brandon Meredith by forfeit (Penn State leads 6-0)
133: No.4 Roman Bravo-Young tech. fall (23-8) Boo Dryden (Penn State leads 11-0)
141: No.2 Nick Lee fall (1:57) No.5 Mitch McKee (Penn State leads 17-0)
149: No.6 Brayton Lee SV1 (7-5) Jarod Verkleeren (Penn State leads 17-3)
157: No.22 Ryan Thomas dec. (5-4) Luke Gardner (Penn State leads 17-6)
165: No.1 Vincenzo Joseph major dec. (14-5) Bailee O'Reilly (Penn State leads 21-6)
174: No.2 Mark Hall dec. (7-5) No.8 Devin Skatzka (Penn State leads 24-6)
184: No.8 Aaron Brooks major dec. (13-3) No.18 Owen Webster (Penn State leads 28-6)
197: No.16 Shakur Rasheed dec. (6-5) Garrett Joles (Penn State leads 31-6)
285: No.1 Gable Steveson major dec. (13-5) No.16 Seth Nevills (Penn State wins 31-10)