Penn State starts its season at home Friday, November 11th at 7 pm ET. The Nittany Lions will be welcoming in-state foes Lock Haven to Rec Hall. Penn State is obviously a heavy favorite but there is still a lot to be excited about! Take a look at the probable lineups and five biggest storylines for Penn State’s 

Probable Lineups

125: Gary Steen vs #16 Anthony Noto / Matt Maloney

133: #1 Roman Bravo-Young vs #HM Gable Strickland

141: #10 Beau Bartlett vs Ty Linsenbigler

149: Shayne Van Ness vs Connor Eck / So. Nick Stonecheck

157: #HM Terrell Barraclough vs Ashton Eyler / J.T. Hogan

165: #HM Alex Facundo / Joe Lee vs Aiden Gaugler

174: #1 Carter Starocci vs Tyler Stoltzfus

184: #1 Aaron Brooks vs Colin Fegley

197: #1 Max Dean vs Brad Morrison

285: #2 Greg Kerkvliet vs Ethan Miller

Shayne Van Ness’ Debut

This is the #1 thing I’m excited to see Friday night. While 2021 signee Alex Facundo will also probably be making his official Penn State debut, we saw Facundo compete at the three open tournaments last season including the Southern Scuffle as well as the U20 World Team Trials and World Championships. We only got to watch Shayne Van Ness wrestle in two matches last season and no off-season tournaments. In addition to that, Van Ness missed a lot of his senior year of high school with a leg injury. All of this has led to a lot of intrigue regarding exactly just how good he is.

Cael Sanderson said in his Tuesday press conference that Van Ness is “really good”, and I believe him. Van Ness was the #4 overall recruit coming out of high school and wrestled a hard and high-paced style that I thought would transition great to the D1 level. 

Watch Shayne Van Ness beat Jesse Mendez at Who’s Number One below

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Alex Facundo’s Official Debut

As previously mentioned, we have a better idea of where Facundo is at than Ness. However, with Facundo’s high school and freestyle success, I think a lot of fans were surprised to see him lose to the likes of John Martin Best, Caleb Fish, and Thomas Bullard last year. Not that those are incredibly bad losses, but when you’re the #2 overall recruit coming out of high school and have multiple age-level World medals, there are high expectations. 

Facundo showed he isn’t trending down this summer by making the U20 World team. Now that he’ll be competing without a redshirt, expectations are back to being high. Now, all this talk and he might not even start. Joe Lee was also listed on the probable lineups. Lee was a national qualifier at the weight in 2021 before Creighton Edsell dropped down and won the 165-pound starting spot last year. 

Beau Bartlett At 141

With Nick Lee holding down the 141-pound spot for the past two years, it’s been no secret that Beau Bartlett has been competing at a less-than-ideal weight class for him. That’s about to change, however. In his first two seasons, Bartlett went 8-3 and 15-10 and qualified for NCAAs once. Now at 141 lbs, Bartlett is already ranked in the top 10 and he is expected to be in contention for All-American status.

Listen to Cael Sanderson talk about Bartlett’s drop to 141 below (10:55 mark)

Lineup Questions & Tough Matches At 125 and 157

There’s not much question as to who will be starting at these weights on Friday night as there was only one wrestler listed on the probable lineups. However, Gary Steen and Terrell Barraclough for sure haven’t locked these weights down yet. Sanderson said as much in his press conference earlier this week. These guys are more or less fighting for their starting spot every time they go out there.

And if you’re a Golden Eagles fan, these two weights are where you’re looking to pick up a victory. If Anthony Noto wrestles, he’ll be the favorite over Steen. A national qualifier last year, Noto went 31-3 as a freshman. Ashton Eyler was also a national qualifier last year, but up at 165 lbs. He went 4-1 while competing at 157 lbs at the Princeton Open last weekend.

While the other options aren’t quite as strong at 125 lbs, Levi Haines is waiting in the wings at 157 lbs. At #9 on the big board, the Pennsylvania native was the prize possession of this past recruiting class. Haines forewent his senior year of high school eligibility to train at the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club. Sanderson said, “we’ll let things play out” when asked about starting the true freshmen.

Watch Levi Haines beat Mitchell Mesenbrink at the 2022 U20 WTT below:

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Other options at 125 include Tim Levine, Marco Vespa, and Karl Shindledecker.

The Return Of Murderers' Row + RBY

This Penn State team is one of the biggest pre-season favorites to win the national team title in recent history. They return four national champions and have another current legit title threat in Greg Kerkvliet. We should enjoy every minute we get to watch them. 

I was surprised to see Roman Bravo-Young in the probable lineups, and not just listed, but the sole 133-pounder. It seemed as though the plan was going to be to save him until the second semester. Don't forget, at the end of last year, we thought it might be the last time we were watching RBY wrestle at all. He didn't announce he was returning for his final year until May of 2022. 

This Penn State lineup might have one of the greatest upper-weight halves of all time. Facundo/Lee still have to prove themselves, but it's incredibly rare you get to watch back to back to back national champs and close with another potential national champion. Enjoy every second of it.