3seventh-place bouts, the Nittany Lions went 11-2 and expanded their total to 169 and lead to 60 over Nebraska.
Lilledahl posted two wins divergent wins Saturday to earn his third-place finish. A sudden victory win and a fall in 6:18, the first of his career.
Seeded No. 1, Lilledahl said his mindset was to get the next-best thing after being upset in the quarterfinals.
“My coaches just telling me ‘these guys all want a reason to quit, so give it to them.’ Just wrestling hard and getting in my positions is going to do that. It gets in their heads whenever they can’t win the mini battles in the hand ties and top and bottom,” he said.
Bartlett, too, survived a sudden victory period in his consolation semifinal and then breezed to a major decision for his 100th career win. He finished his career with a 100-20 record.
“Yesterday, I felt like I let people down a little bit. There was that feeling. But just the positive words I got from everyone knowing how happy they are to see me …,” he said. “Ten All-Americans, that is spectacular.”
Van Ness was dominant in bouncing back from his semifinal loss, posting a fall in 1:06 and a 15-4 major decision.
Kasak had a harder path to his third-place finish. He survived a 4-2 decision and then won 8-0 in the third-place bout.
“There’s a great deal of gratitude and a great deal of dissatisfaction that kind of comes with taking third again. It’s not something that you want to get,” he said.
Last year, Kasak lost his first bout of the tournament and then won seven consecutive bouts in the consolation bracket to take third.
Haines, too, had to bounce back from a heartbreaking semifinal loss. He posted a 4-1 win and an 11-3 major decision for third.
Davis dropped his consolation semifinal match 8-5. But in the fifth-place bout, he scored a defensive fall from neutral in 2:33 to finish in fifth, ahead of his No. 8 seed.
Kerkvliet, obviously limited by his heavily braced left knee, medically forfeited his consolation semifinal and fifth-place bouts. He finished his career as a five-time All-American and 2024 NCAA champion with a 92-13 career record.
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