No. 22 Wrestling Treks to No. 2 Penn State Sunday

Sunday, January 19

University Park, PA

5 PM

Rutgers University

Penn State

Photo by: (Ben Solomon/Rutgers Athletics)

No. 22 Wrestling Treks to No. 2 Penn State Sunday

Jan 18 | Wrestling

Watch: ESPN2 Radio: WRSU (88.7 FM)Match Notes: Penn State Cornell Recap

Match set for live television broadcast on ESPN2

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers wrestling (7-2, 2-1) hits the road to face No. 2 Penn State (5-1, 2-0) on Sunday for a Big Ten Conference dual in University Park, Pennsylvania. The 5 p.m. matchup will televise nationally on ESPN2, with Mike Couzens, David Taylor and Quint Kessenich on the call.

What to Know
• The Scarlet Knights are coming off a tight 18-16 loss to No. 19 Cornell on Friday night in front of 4,592 fans at the RAC. RU worked a 5/5 match split against the Big Red, including wins in its final four bouts of the dual, but Cornell's pin at 149 pounds proved to be the difference.
• Billy Janzer (184) picked up his third consecutive victory over a ranked foe with his 10-6 decision over No. 19 (Intermat) Jonathan Loew. The win moved Janzer to 9-0 in dual action this season, as he leads Rutgers with 31 dual points.
• No. 16 Nicolas Aguilar (125), No. 18 Jordan Pagano (197), Joseph Grello (174) and Alex Esposito (HWT) also picked up wins against the Big Red, with Pagano working a major decision.
• No. 9 Sammy Alvarez (133) dropped his first match to a ranked foe this season with his 3-2 loss to Cornell's No. 4 Chas Tucker. Alvarez is now 7-1 against ranked Intermat foes, including victories over three top-10 opponents.
• Aguilar, Alvarez, Janzer and have combined for 48 victories this season and are 19-3 in dual action.

Projected Matchups: No. 2 Penn State
125: 16/15/14 Nicolas Aguilar (17-4) OR Malcolm Robinson (4-4) vs. Brandon Meredith (11-6)
133: 9/11/9 Sammy Alvarez (17-5) vs. 3/4/4 Roman Bravo-Young (10-0)
141: JoJo Aragona (9-5) OR Zach Firestone (5-6) vs. 2/2/2 Nick Lee (10-0)
149: Gerard Angelo (11-8) OR Nick Santos (6-1) vs. NR/NR/28 Jarod Verkleeren (11-2) OR Luke Gardner (6-1)
157: Michael VanBrill (14-10) vs. 4/7/5 Brady Berge (1-0) OR Bo Pipher (8-7)
165: Brett Donner (13-10) vs. 1/1/1 Vincenzo Joseph (5-0)
174: NR/NR/25 Joseph Grello (6-4) OR Willie Scott (6-4) vs. 1/1/1 Mark Hall (13-0)
184: NR/25/27 Billy Janzer (14-4) vs. 8/9/8 Aaron Brooks (6-0)
197: 18/18/21 Jordan Pagano (16-5) OR Mathew Correnti (10-4) vs. 20/23/15 Shakur Rasheed (1-1) OR Austin Hoopes (5-6)
HWT: Alex Esposito (15-9) vs. NR/NR/23 Seth Nevills (8-0)
Rankings: Intermat/FloWrestling/TheOpenMat

Scouting Penn State
• The Nittany Lions boast a 5-1 dual record and 2-0 mark in Big Ten action, which includes 30-9 victory over No. 12 Northwestern on Sunday at Rec Hall in their last time out.
• Penn State boasts nine wrestlers that appear in national rankings, including consensus No. 1 student-athletes Vincenzo Joseph (165) and Mark Hall (174). No. 2 Nick Lee (141), No. 3 Roman Bravo-Young (133) and No. 4 Brady Berge (157) join them within the top-5.
• The Nittany Lions have captured the past four NCAA team titles, including last year in Pittsburgh with 137.5 team points. PSU had three individual national champions, five finalists and seven All-Americans.
• Hall (3x), Joseph (2x), Lee (2x), Bravo-Young (1x) and Rasheed (1x) are all returning All-Americans for the Nittany Lions.

The Series
• Rutgers is 0-21 all-time against Penn State, with the programs set to meet for the fourth time as conference foes.
• The Scarlet Knights wrestled PSU tough in their last meeting, a 25-15 loss on Jan. 28, 2018 at the RAC. Nick Suriano (125), Scott DelVecchio (133) and John VanBrill (157) all picked up victories against the Nittany Lions in the dual, while Grello also appeared.

Up Next
Rutgers returns to the RAC for its next two matches, as it hosts Indiana on Friday (Jan. 26) and No. 14 Purdue on Sunday (Jan. 28). After its road tilt with Penn State, RU will not leave the Tri-state area for the next seven weeks.

Rutgers Wrestling is presented by Eat Clean Bro, an Official Partner of Rutgers Athletics.

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