Tyler Kasak wiped at his right eye, trying to keep the blood that was leaking from his forehead from temporarily blinding him.

As Penn State’s trainers went to work patching the big gash on Kasak’s forehead, the Nittany Lion felt a surge of adrenaline when he saw blood dropping onto the mat, just feet from where Iowa’s Jacori Teemer stood ready to resume their bout.

“I didn’t even really know how bad or what it looked like,” Kasak said. “I just knew it was a little bit of blood. It’s just part of the sport and I kind of like it, it’s fun. It makes you feel alive a little bit.”

It was bad. It didn’t look pretty. None of that matters in this sport. 

With the aid of some gauze and a full bandage around his forehead, Kasak overpowered last season’s NCAA runner-up 5-2. He used a second-period low single to take a 4-0 lead midway through the second period.

Teemer escaped, then began the third period with another escape to halve Kasak’s lead. But Penn State’s rugged middleweight nearly countered a Teemer shot on the edge before a reset with 30 seconds left. 

Kasak was able to counter Teemer again and the bout ended with Kasak holding Teemer off his feet with a 2:06 advantage in riding time. As Teemer tried to squirm away, Kasak raised a fist in celebration.

Afterward, Kasak headed into the locker room for stitches.

“That’s probably one of the coolest things I’ve seen here,” 125-pounder Luke Lilledahl said.

But his teammates are used to seeing that toughness. Kasak, who grew up working on his family’s farm where he helped raise cattle, horses, pigs, chickens and goats, showed plenty of it last season.

Then, he began at 141 before bumping up to 149, where he qualified for the NCAA Championships as the seventh seed. He lost his first match to Stanford’s Jaden Abas 4-2 before reeling off seven straight wins to take third.

Kasak’s blistering path through the consolation bracket included a fall and three majors. He pinned ninth-seeded Ethan Fernandez of Cornell in just 37 seconds, hammered #1 seed Ridge Lovett of Nebraska 10-1, then toppled WVU’s fifth-seeded Ty Watters in the third-place match.

He was just the ninth wrestler in NCAA history to win out after losing his first match.

“Kasak’s a tough kid,” Penn State coach Cael Sanderson said. “Very gritty. If you listen to his after-match press conference, it just is what it is. He kept his composure and stayed in good position.”

Davis Questionable 

The Nittany Lions have duals against Michigan and Maryland this weekend but are unsure if 133-pounder Braeden Davis will be available. 

Davis, who Sanderson said is dealing with an unspecified ailment, surrendered his spot in the lineup to Kurt McHenry on Friday against Iowa. McHenry, a senior who’d wrestled all 28 of his previous collegiate matches at 125, bumped up to 133 where he lost to Drake Ayala.

Whoever gets the nod at 133 could have an intriguing matchup against the Terps, where two-time NCAA qualifier Braxton Brown will likely await.

“That’s something we’ll decide as we get a little closer to the match,” Sanderson said. “It wouldn’t surprise me if he’s ready to roll. He could be ready to roll real soon or we might let him relax a little bit longer.”

Next Level 

Lilledahl has been methodical in his approach at 125, not getting too high or too low all season.

As a result, it’s no surprise to Sanderson that the true freshman was able to bounce back after his first collegiate loss, a 4-1 defeat to Rutgers’ Dean Peterson on Jan. 24. Lilledahl made easy work of Iowa’s Joey Cruz in his next outting, hammering the Hawkeye 22-6 for a technical fall in 6:43.

“He’s a winner,” Sanderson said. “That’s what he does. It’s not something that anyone needs to talk about or think about. He’s competitive. I think if anything, losses are just an opportunity to learn and grow and sometimes it’s just to kind of remind us to loosen up, that we’re just playing a game here and it’s more about going out there and just kind of being the best we can be and focusing more on that than winning and losing.”

That strategy has paid off. Recently, it has allowed Lilledahl the mental room to focus on more intricate details, like saving time and creating opportunities later in matches by shortening scrambles.

He’s worked with former Penn State All-American Jordan Conaway, who is a resident athlete with the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club.

“I’m always going to have the energy to wrestle through every position,” Lilledahl said. “Just the time that it takes to finish through those scrambles is a big thing.”