Braeden Davis began his collegiate career with lofty goals, but like many fellow rookies, has had to make a slight adjustment.

Initially, Davis wanted to win four NCAA titles, but after his first year at Penn State ended just outside of All-America status, he’s content settling for three.

After wrestling his freshman year at 125, where he won the Big Ten championship before a 2-2 run at last season’s NCAA tournament ended his season in disappointment, Davis has moved up to 133 to make room for talented teammate Luke Lilledahl to take the 125-pound spot.

It didn’t take long for Davis to see the top talent at his new weight.

After taking some time off to heal a knee injury suffered in a win against Drexel’s Kyle Waterman on Nov. 17, Davis returned against top-ranked 133-pounder Ryan Crookham of Lehigh last weekend. 

While Crookham trudged to a 4-2 win, Penn State’s coaching staff saw plenty of positives from Davis. Crookham, who finished third at NCAAs last year, jumped out to an early lead but Davis battled back, forcing two late stall calls before running out of time.

“His attitude was good afterwards,” Penn State associate head coach Cody Sanderson said. “He was upset, he’s as competitive as can be, but he knows he needs to work on some positions and he feels like he wants to get another opportunity to get that guy. That’s the sort of thing we want to hear from guys.”

A Proper Debut

Luke Lilledahl finally got the college debut he was waiting for — center of the mat, under a spotlight.

It just happened at Lehigh instead of Penn State’s Rec Hall.

Lilledahl, who received a forfeit against Drexel at Rec Hall on Nov. 17, stepped onto the mat against Lehigh’s Sheldon Seymour, earning a late counter takedown to post a 4-1 win in his first proper dual match.

“I was happy with Luke,” Sanderson said. “I think he wanted to put more points on the board, but that was his first college dual meet on a big stage against a tough competitor.”

Indeed, Seymour entered the bout ranked 17th at 125 and had already gone 8-1 on the season before pushing Lilledahl early. Lilledahl notched an early second-period escape but couldn’t get to Seymour’s legs inside a packed, PPL Center in Allentown, Pa.

Seymour tied the bout with his own escape with 1:46 to wrestle. Moments later, Seymour got in deep on Lilledahl’s left leg before the Penn State freshman sprawled out to force a reset with 59 seconds left.

As the seconds ticked away, Seymour got in again on the left leg. But Lilledahl was able to adjust, pop out and sweep Seymour’s right leg and follow up with the go-ahead takedown with 15 seconds left to cap a 4-1 win.

“There’s just a lot of maturity that was (shown) there from him,” Sanderson said. “That sort of thing is really hard to coach. He just knows where he is in the match. He didn’t panic at all. He just stayed focused. Stayed with his snaps, stayed with his attacks.” 

Lilledahl’s schedule figures to get tougher, too. 

Penn State will wrestle Wyoming on Sunday at the Bryce Jordan Center where the Cowboys could send last season’s Big 12 champion Jore Volk to the mat.

Volk has not wrestled since Nov. 23.

“Hopefully he’s able to wrestle,” Sanderson said. “Hopefully he’s healthy. That’s probably the most exciting match for me coming up, but if we don’t get it, it’s still an opportunity to see Luke get out there and continue to develop.” 

Barr Cruises

Penn State’s coaches were also pleased with redshirt freshman Josh Barr’s efforts at 197 against a former Nittany Lion, Michael Beard.

Beard transferred to Lehigh following the 2021-22 season when he went 8-2 as a Nittany Lion. But the seventh-year wrestler was no match for Barr’s pace.

Barr notched three takedowns and rolled to an 11-3 major to improve to 5-0.

“I think if you saw in that match, you saw him really get to his offense,” Sanderson said. “He didn’t get stuck underneath, he didn’t have his head down, those are the things we’re looking for. For him to get to that leg and get to the finishes — early in his career, he got stuck underneath guys a couple times, but you can see the improvement.”