Takedown Report

Aaron Brooks, Penn State Wrestling Rolling Into Showdown With Iowa

Three-time NCAA champ Aaron Brooks has been racking up bonus points for the #1 Penn State wrestling team, which travels Friday to take on #3 Iowa.
Aaron Brooks had to pause on Tuesday to think about his favorite way to win a wrestling match.  After a few seconds passed, the three-time NCAA champion still couldn’t settle on an answer between two obvious options. “I don’t know, actually,” Brooks said. “I mean, I don’t mind a tech (fall) because I’m getting more shots in and maybe a turn, but a pin’s like, ‘Alright!’ Go back, drink the Gatorade, whatever it is.” Reading between the lines, Brooks just likes to dominate. He likes to do it with flair, too.  Brooks, who’s won 70 percent of his collegiate matches with bonus points, wishes more wrestlers across the country had the same, aggressive mindset as often as he and most of his teammates. But when the Nittany Lions watch other top teams around the country, they don’t see a lot of stylistic similarities. 
The Nittany Lions will face off with the rival Iowa Hawkeyes in Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Friday where Penn State’s let-it-fly style will again be up against the Hawkeyes’ much stingier approach. But Iowa’s patient plodding didn’t work against Michigan, where the Hawkeyes lost the opening five bouts without a single takedown to show for them.
Michigan won the dual 24-11. “I wouldn’t say that’s just Iowa, I think that’s a lot of folkstyle (teams),” Brooks said. “I think the way the rules are set up, you don’t have to really go get someone. I think for us, our team, we like to go score points. So I think the refs kind of look at it as ‘Oh, well these guys will score so I’m not gonna make the other guy wrestle.’ So I wouldn’t say that’s even just Iowa. I think that’s a lot of the NCAA.”
Brooks, like NCAA champs David Taylor, Ed Ruth, Jason Nolf, Zain Retherford and Bo Nickal before him, has only benefitted as Penn State’s staff has continued to cultivate bonus-point machines over the last decade-plus. Fifty-six of Brooks’ 80 collegiate bouts have come with bonus points. That includes four majors, a tech and a pin in the NCAA Championships. 
So far this year, his first at 197 pounds, Brooks has earned bonus points in every bout. He’s got three pins, a major and has made the most of the three-point takedown with six technical falls, none taking longer than 6:21. He also leads the Big Ten with 40 dual-meet takedowns.  “We don’t have a style where we’re trying to figure out how we stop what our opponents do,” Penn State coach Cael Sanderson said. “You know, we’re just trying to do what we do and get better at it. And that’s more of a big-picture philosophy and just you know, how I was taught by my coaches.”
Stumbles At Home
Sanderson isn’t worried about first-year Nittany Lions Aaron Nagao and Bernie Truax after both suffered tough defeats on Friday against Ohio State. Although Penn State won the dual 28-9, Nagao dropped a 13-7 decision to Buckeye freshman Nic Bouzakis at 133 before Truax was pinned by Ryder Rogotzke at 184. … story at … Flowrestling.org/Brooks-penn-state-wrestling-rolling-into-showdown-with-iowa

February 9, 2024 - Posted by The TakeDown Report | Uncategorized