PISCATAWAY, N.J. – No. 14 Rutgers wrestling (10-4, 2-2) lost to No. 1 Penn State (9-0, 3-0), 35-3, in front of a sold-out crowd of 8,057 fans on Friday night at Jersey Mike's Arena. No. 19 Dean Peterson (125) delivered a win over previously undefeated No. 6 Luke Lilledahl to highlight action for the Scarlet Knights in Piscataway.
 
The crowd of 8,057 marked the second-largest for wrestling at the venue in school history and the third sellout for the program since RU began wrestling at Jersey Mike's Arena full time in 2015-16. Rutgers has drawn 6,000 or more fans to Piscataway six times in its history under head coach Scott Goodale.
 
Top Wrestling Crowds at Jersey Mike's Arena
8,321*: Jan. 28, 2018 vs. No. 1 Penn State
8,057*: Jan. 24, 2025 vs. No. 1 Penn State
7,848*: Feb. 10, 2023 vs. No. 1 Penn State
7,545: Jan. 13, 2019 vs. No. 3 Oklahoma State
6,754: Dec. 8, 2017 vs. No. 7 Iowa
6,365: Dec. 10, 2021 vs. Army
 
Peterson opened up the dual against Lilledahl, who entered Friday night with an unblemished 10-0 record. Both traded escapes to enter the third period tied 1-1 before Peterson finished a single-leg shot off the restart with 28 seconds left for the takedown. Peterson rode out Lilledahl to the buzzer, securing his second top 10 individual win in his last three matches to give Rutgers a quick 3-0 lead.
 
No. 9 Dylan Shawver (133) followed with a good effort against No. 7 Braeden Davis. Davis rode out Shawver in the second period after a scoreless first, but back-to-back stall calls on the Nittany Lion gave Shawver a 1-0 lead through two periods. However, Davis worked an escape and added the riding time point for the 2-1 final.
 
No. 14 Joseph Olivieri (141), No. 31 Conner Harer (157) and Alex Nini (149) all followed with hard-fought losses before intermission. Olivieri dropped a tight 7-3 decision to No. 3 Beau Bartlett, Nini lost in his Jersey Mike's Arena debut to No. 4 Shayne Van Ness, and Harer dropped a tight 4-0 decision to No. 3 Tyler Kasak. Penn State took a 14-3 lead into the break.
 
The Nittany Lions began to pull away in their final five matches of the night, which featured all five individuals ranked four or higher. With its sweep in the second half, Penn State left with a 35-3 dual win.
 
Box Score
No. 1 Penn State 35, No. 14 Rutgers 3
125: 19/15 Dean Peterson (RU) over 6/6 Luke Lilledahl (PSU) by dec., 4-1; RU leads, 3-0
133: 7/7 Braeden Davis (PSU) over 9/9 Dylan Shawver (RU) by dec., 2-1; match tied, 3-3
141: 3/3 Beau Bartlett (PSU) over 14/13 Joseph Olivieri (RU) by dec., 7-3; PSU leads, 6-3
149: 4/3 Shayne Van Ness (PSU) over Alex Nini (RU) by TF, 17-2 (5:26); PSU leads, 11-3
157: 3/3 Tyler Kasak (PSU) over 31/NR Conner Harer (RU) by dec., 4-0; PSU leads, 14-3
165: 1/1 Mitchell Mesenbrink (PSU) over 26/26 Anthony White (RU) by TF, 19-3 (6:30); PSU leads, 19-3
174: 2/2 Levi Haines (PSU) over 22/23 Jackson Turley (RU) by dec., 5-2; PSU leads, 22-3
184: 1/1 Carter Starocci (PSU) over 18/19 Shane Cartagena-Walsh (RU) by TF, 17-2 (6:58); PSU leads, 27-3
197: 4/4 Josh Barr (PSU) over 16/17 John Poznanski (RU) by TF, 22-6 (6:19); PSU leads, 32-3
HWT: 2/2 Greg Kerkvliet (PSU) over 7/8 Yaraslau Slavikouski (RU) by dec., 2-0; PSU wins, 35-3
Rankings Intermat/Flo
 
Up Next
Rutgers hosts No. 10 Illinois on Sunday, Jan. 26 at Jersey Mike's Arena. The dual is set for a 1 p.m. ET start on Big Ten Plus.

Post Match Quotes
Head Coach Scott Goodale
Opening Statement: Good win for [Dean] Peterson. Great crowd. We probably underestimated them a little bit on the mat. They were really, really good in the top position, but you have to create. Dean got off in three seconds, but he was the only guy that really got off the bottom for us tonight. Obviously, they're really, really good, but they're really good on top. We struggled on the mat tonight. We got ridden out a lot, quite a bit, so that made it hard. But overall, they're obviously a great team, an all-time team. You see, you're in the middle of a dynasty right now, and it's, I'm not here to praise them, but they're really good. I don't know what else to say. They're really good.

On How Penn State Makes Other Teams Look: We're a pretty good team. We're a darn good team. We're getting better. We're trending upwards. We got a lot of really good guys in that lineup and they've done that in the past. They've done that to a lot of good teams. It's a lot of spots. It's world class, you know, they're world class guys there, and guys will win world titles, and guys who have won world titles, and that's the level you aspire to be at.

On positives from the night: I mean, obviously that's a huge top six win right there [for Peterson], so that's huge, and it's a lot going forward in a Big Ten seeding meeting. So that's important, but it's not a lack of effort, like going back to what you did. I mean, you could wrestle as hard as you want to wrestle, and it sometimes, it doesn't matter that you're just outmatched in some cases. And that's you saw in the second half of the bout tonight. But listen, this is, this simulates what a Big Ten championship is going to be like. You get a Penn State guy in the quarter, and if you win, you move on. You got another really good guy. If not, you bounce back. We got Illinois Sunday. It simulates it. Let's be ready to go Sunday.

125-Pounder Dean Peterson
On his Big Win: I was just trying to keep my pace and just try to stay calm. Obviously, when you're in front of 8000-9000 fans, you know you feel the crowd, you feel the environment. That was awesome. You know, it's so fun to compete in that jersey atmosphere and Jersey Mike's, so, like, I feel like that was a big advantage for me tonight. You know, in that last 30 seconds off that restart, I could hear the crowd, and it kind of got me, got me going.