Rec Hall wrestling weekend: NWCA All-Star Classic on Saturday; dual meet vs. Drexel on Sunday

While half of Penn State's wrestling team will compete in the NWCA All-Star Classic at 7 p.m. Saturday in Rec Hall, the entire top-ranked Nittany Lion squad will host Drexel at 1 p.m. Sunday in their season-opener. Safe to say, Saturday's action will be much more competitive than Sunday's.

While tickets remain for Saturday's showcase, Sunday's will be a typical full house at the Rec. Whether fans see all of Penn State's starters on Sunday is highly doubtful because of the five wrestlers who be in Saturday night's all-star event.

"Yeah, it looks like the majority of them will not be wrestling Sunday," Penn State coach Cael Sanderson said earlier this week. "I think there's a couple of them that are considering it, but I think their focus right now is the all-star match. They're wrestling some of the best guys in the country, so we want them to focus on that match.

"It doesn't count on your record, but if you're a competitor, every match obviously counts, and you want to go wrestle well and kind of set the tone and get things going. We have a lot of lot of really tough and able-bodied kids that are ready to jump in there, if the opportunities present themselves."

First things first. It's the second straight season that Flo has opted to bring the all-star match to State College, and the star power is impressive. The men and women entrants hold 18 national titles among them and 61 All-America honors.

Here is the order of the 16 matches:

WOMEN: Emma Baertlein, Southern Oregon vs Kendra Ryan, North Central. : Amani Jones, North Central vs Maya Davis, Grand View. Jamilah McBryde, Life vs Aine Drury, King. Cheyenne Bowman, King vs Latifah McBryde, Life. Victoria Baez Dillion, King vs Carolina Moreno, Southern Oregon. MEN: Derek Blubaugh, (Div.II) Indianapolis vs Massoma Endene, (Div.III) Wartburg Stephen Little, Little Rock vs Zac Braunagel, Illinois. Nick Feldman, Ohio State vs Taye Ghadiali, Campbell. Jore Volk, Wyoming vs Tanner Jordan, South Dakota State. Nasir Bailey, Little Rock vs Lucas Byrd, Illinois. Jesse Mendez, Ohio State vs Beau Bartlett, Penn State. Shayne Van Ness, Penn State vs Ty Watters, West Virginia. Tyler Kasak, Penn State vs Peyten Kellar, Ohio. Hunter Garvin, Stanford vs Peyton Hall, West Virginia. Levi Haines, Penn State vs Cade DeVos, South Dakota State. Carter Starocci, Penn State vs Parker Keckeisen, Northern Iowa.

While there are good matches throughout, the order of bouts understandably has five of the final six bouts featuring Penn State wrestlers, with the headliner between Penn State's four-time NCAA champion Carter Starocci, up this season to 184, against the defending 184-pound titlist Parker Keckeisen of Northern Iowa. Keckeisen defeated Penn State's Bernie Truax in last year's all-star meet while Starocci pummeled 2019 NCAA champ Mekhi Lewis of Virginia Tech.

Starocci was injured in the final seconds of the team's final dual meet last season. He was forced to medically forfeit out of the Big Ten tournament, stopping a 64-match winning streak. Despite earning the ninth seed at the NCAAs, Starocci won five straight bouts effectively on one leg, knocking off two former NCAA champs along the way.

He says he's fine. "I feel good. I feel great. I always feel great," Starocci said. "I mean, I get to wrestle every single day. That's kind of stuff I look forward to. And even with this all-star match, I'm wrestling a guy who was pretty dominant last year and things like that, so I'm excited to go show that I'm the dominant one."

Beau Bartlett at 141 went 1-2 against Ohio State's Jesse Mendez last season, losing on a last-second counter takedown in both the Big Ten and NCAA finals. With a rematch set for Saturday, these two conceivably could meet four times this season. When asked why he wanted to go against Mendez to open the season, Bartlett said, "I just want to scrap."

NCAA champ Levi Haines of Penn State was set to face Ohio State's Rocco Welsh but Welsh withdrew and South Dakota State's No. 3-ranked Cade DeVos is Haines' new foe at 174. Haines, ranked second behind two-time champ Keegan O'Toole of Missouri, is up two weight classes from last season. DeVos, whose career record is 99-32, placed fifth last season.

Shayne Van Ness, who underwent a procedure on his knee in January of this year, is already back and in the No. 2 spot at 149 and will make a second all-star appearance. This year it's a tussle with third-ranked Ty Watters of West Virginia. "He's looking really good, we're excited to get him back in the lineup," Sanderson said about Van Ness.

Penn State fans can expect to see freshman Luke Lilledahl kick things off on Sunday against Drexel. "He's a guy that loves to train and loves to improve and has a great mindset," Sanderson said about his true freshman.

Braeden Davis will be at 133 after winning the 125-pound Big Ten title as a true freshman and earning the No. 1 seed at the NCAAs. Alex Facundo should occupy the 157 spot on Sunday while defending NCAA runner-up Mitchell Mesenbrink is at 165, Lucas Cochran or Josh Barr will fill the 197 spot and defending NCAA champ Greg Kerkvliet is the heavyweight.

Realistically, even with as many as five possible substitutes on Sunday — or perhaps fewer —it's a stretch to think that Drexel can prevent a shutout. The Dragons have lost 29-9 to Navy and 33-0 to North Carolina thus far. They are set to host Northern Colorado Friday night before heading to State College on Saturday.

Penn State won't be back in Rec Hall until 1 p.m. Dec. 15 against Wyoming (the Lions will visit Wyoming next season). In between is the Army Black Knight Invitational on Nov. 24 and a trip to Allentown for the annual throwdown with Eastern rival Lehigh on Dec. 8.