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Image courtesy of Greg Bulsak’s Instagram. Former Penn Stater Jarod Verkleeren, who started 19 duals at 149 pounds during his three years and qualified for the NCAA Tournament last year, will don a Virginia singlet next season, he announced late Thursday. https://twitter.com/verkleeren_j/status/1382805864835395585?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1382805864835395585%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.collegian.psu.edu%2Fsports%2Fwrestling%2Fformer-penn-state-wrestler-jarod-verkleeren-announces-transfer-destination%2Farticle_73e1861c-9e31-11eb-ac85-1f02f65d5e6b.html Over his career, Verkleeren went 32-14 at Penn State and spent several weeks ranked inside the top-20 wrestlers at 149 pounds in 2020, his first full season as a starter. There has been chatter that the reigning 141-pound national champ, Nick Lee, might bump up to 149 in 2022. The Verkleeren news marks the second time in as many weeks that Penn State has announced that a starter from its 2021 lineup will not be returning in 2022. Former Lion 157-pounder Brady Berge announced he would be stepping away from the mat due to a medical retirement. Elsewhere, Greg Bulsak announced on Instagram he is transferring to the Rutgers Scarlet Knights from Clarion University for his final season of eligibility.  A three-time NCAA qualifier and a redshirt senior, Bulsak wrestled at 197 pounds the last two seasons. He became Clarion’s first Mid-American Conference champion in 2020 and was seeded 10th in that year’s NCAA Tournament before the tournament was canceled.  Bulsak’s arrival in Piscataway will add some depth to an already very talented crop of Scarlet Knight upperweights, arguably their most acclaimed trio of upperweights in recent memory. In 2021, freshman John Poznanski (184) earned a fourth-place finish at NCAAs, while sophomore Jackson Turley (174) finished eighth in his first national tournament. With that, the Scarlet Knights closed the postseason with three All-Americans in the same year for the first time in program history. The third All-America honoree was grad transfer, Sebastian Rivera, at 141.

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