UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The time has come for one of the most anticipated events of the wrestling season, as Penn State prepares for it's annual pilgrimage to the Bryce Jordan Center. The nearly 16.000-seat arena will see the Nittany Lions take on Michigan in an attempt to pick up their tenth win of the season.
"It's something that we look forward to," head coach Cael Sanderson said. "It's an opportunity for more people to get in and watch the team. It's a great matchup with Michigan, they have a really strong team and they're wrestling really well, so everything just adds up to a great event."
The event provides a unique opportunity for wrestling on the big stage not available outside of the NCAA Tournament. And for the Penn State wrestlers, with the home crowd fully behind them, it gives them that much more of an added boost.
"I love it, I wish we were there more, but I think one time a year gives us more of a feeling like 'wow, it's coming up,'" senior Shakur Rasheed said. "It makes it more of a huge event, as opposed to an every-weekend thing. We love Rec Hall, and that's why we're there most of the time, but for me, at the BJC I feel like a superstar out there."
The BJC Dual has been such a massive success for the program over the last few years that speculation has come that the team could move there full time, but Sanderson admits it'd be tough to leave Rec Hall and everything that historic venue has to offer.
"We like wrestling in the BJC. I think we could move over there, but there's just something about Rec Hall that's going to make it hard to get us out of here," Sanderson said. "This is our home base, this is where we train and the locker room is here. There's just something about the closeness that we really enjoy."
The meet at the BJC also marks a return home for the Nittany Lions, as they wrestled at Indiana and Purdue last week. The home meet, especially here down the stretch of the season, allows the Nittany Lions some time to develop some more consistency in their routines.
"It's good to be home. The traveling, that mileage really adds up. We're traveling more than we're sleeping at this point," Rasheed said. "When we're home with our fans, we get to relax and be able to train on our own schedule as oppose to figuring out what we're going to do on what day."
The Nittany Lions have faced no shortage of adversity this year, but Sanderson applauds how his team has responded to everything thrown at them. Roman Bravo-Young's status for Friday remains up in the air, but Jason Nolf continues to shine as he will be back to wrestling in the BJC after missing last year's event against Iowa.
"Adversity is a great clarifier. It gives you a great idea of what you truly want," Sanderson said. "You have to fight for what you want. Winning the national championship is a very competitive thing. There's a lot of individuals, a lot of teams that would love to be the champions, and that's what makes what we do so special."
Penn State expects a challenge from No. 5 Michigan, as the Wolverines come in at 9-0 as well after an impressive win at No. 2 Ohio State last weekend. The Nittany Lions are 31-24 all-time against Michigan, including a win last year in Ann Arbor.
"They have a lot of very good, experienced wrestlers in the lineup," Sanderson said. "Coach Bormet, I've known him a long time, I think he's a great coach and they're going to be ready to go. They had a big win last week, so I'm sure they're happy with where they're at."
The meet is set to start at 7 p.m. Friday and will be televised on BTN. For parking and traffic updates for those traveling to the game, you can follow this link here: https://bjc.psu.edu/penn-state-wrestling-vs-michigan.
