Penn State | Plaid Line + PRIZM + Scottie News

By: Brayden Marsh

Coach Cael Sanderson during the wrestling match against Buffalo at Rec Hall, Sunday, Feb. 24, 2019. On Senior Day, Penn State defeat Buffalo 47-3. By: Noah Riffe via Wikimedia Commons

Cael Sanderson wrestled D1 for Iowa State University in 1999-2002, and within that time, became the only D1 wrestler in history to wrestle 4 years undefeated. He had a record of 159-0, and won 4 NCAA titles. Many fans call him the most dominant college wrestler of all time.

7 years later, in 2009, he was named head coach of Penn State Wrestling. At the time he was only 29 years old, which is relatively young to be a head coach.

Since Cael Sanderson started at Penn State, the team as a whole has only lost 16 out of 243 dual matches they’ve attended, with 2 of them being draws. The team also has a win streak of 78 duals, which goes all the way back to 2020. This gives them a win rate of about 93%. He has coached 40 individual national champions at Penn state, and 101 All-Americans.

It’s safe to say Cael Sanderson has to maintain his team’s dominance in the sport, and he has found many ways to do so. The practices he holds for Penn State are very low pressure which helps the wrestlers prioritize their growth and improvement in the sport over trying to earn validation from their teammates and coaches. A good example of this is the way he runs the warm ups for the team. Instead of an intense series of gymnastics, drilling and cardio, his team plays games like dodgeball.

He also obviously recruits some of the best high school wrestlers in the nation, and even some of the best in the world. An example of this is Ono Masanosuke, who won the 61kg world championships in 2024. He has a 19-3 senior level record, which is also very impressive. He is expected to compete for Penn State next year.

Cael Sanderson has managed to make an extremely dominant wrestling team that nearly no other team can catch up to. This year, Penn State had 4 national champions and 8 All-Americans. Overall, Cael Sanderson has had a huge impact on Penn State Wrestling and the team likely wouldn’t be where they are now if it wasn’t for him.

By: Siri David

On December 22, 2024 Penn State and Louisville faced off in Louisville, Kentucky. This was a big match up because not many people thought that Penn State was going to be in the National Championship. It was a long road to get to this point for both teams. A few days before, Louisville played the University of Pittsburgh and lost. This was a big upset because a lot of people thought they were going to win the whole thing. Penn State played Nebraska, and everyone knew it was going to be a good match but thought Nebraska was going to take it. In the end, Louisville and Penn State won.

This match was a lot bigger than just volleyball. For Penn State, every single player on that team was playing for their coach, Katie Schumacher, who has stage 2 of breast cancer. Throughout the whole season all of her players talked about how everything they do is for her.

Louisville has been underestimated all season and wanted to prove that they could show up and win. Along with the match taking place in Louisville they wanted this win more than anything. Louisville was also in the National Championship two years ago and lost to Texas, so they wanted to show up and play their best game.

When it came down to the actual match it was crazy. Penn State won in four sets. The second set was super close the entire time and this was the only set that Louisville won. Louisville put up a good fight, especially after losing their star player Anna Debeer due to an ankle injury the game before. In the end, both teams put up a great fight but Penn State did take the win.