UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Beginning a new season can always be a challenge for any collegiate wrestling team, especially when replacing a three-time NCAA Champion and two-time Hodge Trophy award winner. For the top-ranked Penn State wrestling team, Zain Retherford's replacement has come in the form of two wrestlers splitting time at 149 pounds, but that might not be for long.
Brady Berge, a redshirt freshman, has been back and forth with classmate Jarod Verkleeren through the first half of the season. But, after a third-place finish at the Southern Scuffle to start the new year, Berge could set himself as the team's starter.
"I think based on the results, Berge has established himself there as the starter," head coach Cael Sanderson said. "But we've still got two-plus months of wrestling left.
"I think he's right there and I think he knows that. He's just tough and when he really wanted to go and score, I think he went and scored. The loss that he had was based on a ride-out which is something that we need to work on."
Berge, currently ranked ninth at 149 pounds on the InterMat NCAA Division I Rankings,is 12-1 this season, but knows he needs to build off his Southern Scuffle performance.
"Obviously when you don't win a tournament the outcome isn't what you want, but there's a lot of good things," Berge said. "But there are a lot of things I need to work on that I was exposed to which is good for me. I'm young, and I'm always willing to learn to get better, and I believe that my best wrestling is yet to come and I'm just excited to keep moving forward and keep getting better throughout the season."
Success isn't new for the redshirt freshman, as this summer Berge won Bronze representing the United States at the Junior World Championship in Trnava, Slovakia. Berge competed at 70 kg and battled back from a first-round loss to his third-place finish.
The Mantorville, Minnesota native also only lost one match in high school, an injury default, and is motivated by Penn State's top scorers.
"I'm also the type of kid that when I see that I want to do it too," Berge said. "I want to be the best that I can be, and when you see guys like Jason Nolf out there lighting up the scoreboard as he does, I want to do that too. But I also know we're different people, we wrestle differently. It's also awesome to be able to train with him every day and have him help me and give me tips and things like that."
While Berge is at the beginning of working on an impressive Penn State career, an older teammate is leaving a mark on the Penn State record book. During the Southern Scuffle, senior Bo Nickal collected his 100thcareer win, a feat that caught his coach off guard.
"We hear those kinds of things when they announce them on the loudspeaker really," Sanderson said. "I was standing next to him and said 'did you take a year off or what you only barely got to 100.' He has only had a couple of losses in his career, but it's just different now. We don't wrestle as many matches as they did 10, 15, 20 years ago."
Nickal is also just four pins behind Jason Nolf who is Penn State's all-time pins leader with 54.
Nolf set the new mark with his 53rdpin during the Southern Scuffle, a record formerly held by a trio of Nittany Lions (Zain Retherford, David Taylor, and Josh Moore). Nolf is also just one win away from 100.
"I didn't know that Nolf was a pin away from leading Penn State in all-time pins," Sanderson added. "That's amazing. It says a lot about Nolf, also because we don't wrestle as many matches as some of the guys that have come through here. You're talking about guys like Ed Ruth, Zain Retherford and David Taylor; you've got some really great pinning machines that have come to Penn State, so it's pretty special."
Berge, Nickal, and the Nittany Lions begin Big Ten action this weekend wrestling at Northwestern on Friday, January 11 at 8 p.m. and finish the weekend at Rec Hall on Sunday, January 13 at 1 p.m. taking on No. 19 Wisconsin.
