The 2021 NCAAs and the 2020 Tokyo Games Highlight the Successes of the Penn State Coaching Staff
by Christopher Miller
Penn State Wrestling coaches Casey Cunningham (left), Cael Sanderson (center), and Cody Sanderson (right) while coaching the Nittany Lions against Nebraska. Photo courtesy of Penn State Sports Information.  If you are a high school wrestler looking to make a college decision, there are many different factors to consider before making your commitment. Sure, there are academic opportunities taken into account and wrestling-specific elements that are considered.  With respect to the wrestling-specific decisions being made during the recruiting process, much of the final choice hinges upon the coaching staff that is in place at the institution of choice. All recruits, especially elite recruits with World/Olympic medal aspirations, will likely prioritize the coaching staff and how said staff could improve his/her performance on the mat.  With that, the debate ensues about which institution has the best coaching staff, best facilities, and best resources in place to develop future NCAA/World and Olympic champions. In wrestling, particularly, the blueblood programs, plus others in the Big Ten, are the frontrunners in this discussion.  In 2021, it’s hard to argue with the success that Penn State and the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club athletes are having on the biggest stages.  Let’s look back at what Cael Sanderson and company have achieved over the last few months.  In 2021, the Iowa Hawkeyes won it all, earning its 24th team national title and the first team title of the Spencer Lee era. The Hawks had 129 points, 15.5 in front of second-place Penn State. The team title is the first since 2010. It was also the first time since 2015 where PSU didn’t win the national team title. Remarkably, the Lions have been crowned NCAA team champs nine times in its last 10 attempts (Note: There was no NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic).   Despite the Hawks ending the 11-year title drought, the second-place Lions stole the show when the lights were brightest in the NCAA finals at Enterprise Center in St. Louis on March 20.  Sanderson and the Nittany Lions finished second nationally, produced four national champions, and took two individual titles away from their Hawkeye rivals in head-to-head finals bouts at 141 and 174. Rather impressively, PSU accomplished all of this with five rookies in the starting lineup, three of whom ended the year as All-Americans, including Carter Starocci, who was a champion at 174 pounds.  At the 2020 Olympic Games at Makuhari Messe Hall in Chiba, Japan, earlier this month, it was the Sanderson-trained Nittany Lion Wrestling Club grapplers that proved superior on the biggest stage once again.  Overall, the Team USA freestylers, both the men’s and women’s squads, were superb. The Red, White, and Blue took home nine medals total. All five men’s freestylers who qualified for Tokyo took home a medal, and four of the six women’s Olympians took home a medal as well.   Not surprisingly, a large Penn State contingent of coaches and NLWC athletes alike were involved in the success of Team USA Wrestling in Tokyo.  Five of the seven Nittany Lion Wrestling Club members who competed in the Tokyo Games took home medals - David Taylor (gold), Kyle Snyder (silver), Thomas Gilman (bronze), Helen Maroulis (bronze), and Bekzod Abdurakhmonov (bronze for Uzbekistan).  On the coaching side, Penn State wrestling coaches Cael Sanderson (Snyder), Casey Cunningham (Taylor), and Cody Sanderson (Gilman) all served as personal coaches in Tokyo. Again, the Penn State program, dominant as it has been during the Cael Sanderson era, can only offer 9.9 scholarships and only has 10 wrestlers in its starting lineup every season, just like every other college wrestling program in the country. That said, it is hard to argue with the results Cael and company are getting in Happy Valley.  The Penn State room is not the “best fit” for every elite wrestler across the country (and even the world, for that matter). However, if nothing else, NCAAs and the Olympic Games have served as one heck of a recruiting pitch for all high school wrestlers, transfers, and Olympic hopefuls considering State College, Pennsylvania, as their next training destination.  

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