Lions host No. 6 Ohio St. | News, Sports, Jobs

STATE COLLEGE — The way Max Dean sees it, wrestling in front of 15,000 fans screaming at you or 15,000 fans screaming for you are both pretty rare and pretty fun.

The Penn State 197-pounder and the rest of his teammates will have that opportunity on back-to-back Friday nights.

After reducing the fans in Carver-Hawkeye Arena to a frustrated murmur last Friday, Dean and the Nittany Lions hope to incite 15,000 fans in the Bryce Jordan Center to a deafening roar tonight.

No. 6 Ohio State (6-2, 2-2 Big Ten) visits No. 1 Penn State (14-0, 6-0 Big Ten) in the first of two big home dual meets this weekend. No. 8 Nebraska visits Rec Hall at noon Sunday.

“Iowa, their arena and their fan base? They’re into it. That’s one way to put it. It was fun. I enjoyed the experience,” Dean said. “I didn’t hear the specifics of what they were saying.”

His family, however, did.

“I heard some stories later in the night. My family was there. Maybe some people got a little too rowdy or a little too fired up and said something they might regret the next day,” he said.

What Dean was too polite to say was, according to several first-hand accounts, the Iowa fans yelled at, swore at and threw things at the Nittany Lion contingent.

“For us competing, it’s fun,” he said. “Those opportunities, especially in wrestling, are few and far between to wrestle in front of 15,000 people. So, I definitely enjoyed that.”

And, despite the fact that he’s only been a Nittany Lion for half a season, he is already very aware of the support he will receive in the BJC.

“I’m really excited. It’s another neat opportunity,” he said. “It’s a lot of fun. I love Penn State. I love Penn State fans. I know they’re going to show up for us and we’re gonna try to show up for them.”

This will be the third Friday in a row that Penn State has faced a Big Ten opponent ranked in the top 6. Coach Cael Sanderson said he thinks his Nittany Lions will have to have the right attitude to be ready for the challenge.

“I think these weeks are tricky in that you’ve got to turn around, or you get to, I mean. The important thing is just being excited for the opportunity to have big matches like this,” he said.

Both the Buckeyes and the Cornhuskers present unique challenges.

Ohio State features nine ranked wrestlers: No. 10 Malik Heinselman at 125, No. 20 Dylan D’Emilio at 141, No. 2 Sammy Sasso at 149, No. 33 Jason Hubbard at 157, No. 4 Carson Karchla at 165, No. 7 Ethan Smith at 174, No. 6 Kaleb Romero at 184, No. 21 Gavin Hoffman at 197 and No. 13 Tate Orndorff at 285.

Nebraska’s lineup should have seven ranked wrestlers, six of whom are among the top 9 at their respective weights. But the Huskers’ highest-ranked wrestlers face Nittany Lion counterparts who are ranked above them.

The ranked Cornhuskers include: Chad Red (No. 8, 141), Ridge Lovett (No. 8, 149), Peyton Robb (No. 5, 157), Mikey Labriola (No. 5, 174), Taylor Venz (No. 9, 184), Eric Schultz (No. 3, 197) and Christian Lance (No. 12, 285).

Penn State’s lineup figures to remain unchanged from last weekend. Expected starters include: Drew Hildebrandt (No. 6, 125), Roman Bravo-Young (No. 1, 133), Nick Lee (No. 1, 141), Beau Bartlett (No. 18, 149), Terrell Barraclough, Brady Berge (No. 11, 165), Carter Starocci (No. 1, 174), Aaron Brooks (No. 1, 184), Dean (No. 2, 197) and Greg Kerkvliet (No. 5, 285).

“We’ve wrestled several weekends in a row … with two top-10 teams, two really great programs and coaching staffs that we’ve got to be ready for,” Sanderson said. “But I think that’s just part of the process. It’s the same every year and (we’re) just making sure we’re excited to compete.”

Sanderson spoke about the unique opportunity dual meets in the Jordan Center present considering more than twice as many fans can gain access compared to Rec Hall.

“Something we should probably think about as a program is just having more matches over there just because it gives new opportunities for fans to see the team,” he said.

“We want to continue to kind of build our fan base and it’s hard to do if people can’t get in to watch your matches. We look at it as just making sure we have a big match over there and just let as many people as they can fit in there to come watch a match. Hopefully from there you can kind of hook them and make them wrestling fans and Penn State wrestling fans.”