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Former Penn State Nittany Lions wrestler Bo Nickal opened up about the criticism surrounding the Nittany Lions team's victory at the 2025 NCAA Wrestling Championships. The Niitany Lions wrestling side won the title after posting a record team score of 177 during the competition.
Despite this impressive performance, Nickel felt that the heroics of the program went unnoticed by the masses. In a recent conversation, Nickal shared that the Nittany Lions' performance during the 2025 NCAA Championships was very impressive, but the people didn't seem to doesn't pay heed to this achievement.
Nick also remarked that some of the fans will question why everything needs to be about the Penn State wrestling program and that it is because they won the National title. He said (via Nickals and Dimes podcast Instagram):
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"It's crazy that Penn State wrestling can score 177 team points, break the team scoring record, have the best team ever in NCAA tournament history. People don't even really care, it's like big deal you know... I think it's unbelievable and it shows how dominant the program is. People will be like, you are a Penn State homer why do you make it about you guys, it's like we won the tournament, it was about us."
Bo Nickal, during his Penn State days, won three National titles between 2017-2019 along with three Big Ten Conference titles.
Bo Nickal shares his thoughts regarding Wyatt Hendrickson's victory against Gable Steveson at the 2025 NCAA Championships
Bo Nickal recently opened up about Oklahoma State Cowboys wrestler, Wyatt Hendrickson's victory over 2020 Tokyo Olympic gold medalist Gable Steveson during the 2025 NCAA Wrestling Championships (285 lb bracket).
During a conversation, Nickal shared that Hendrickson's win was quite unexpected in his opinion, but he had a feeling regarding the result as the match progressed. He also added that he was impressed with Hendrickson's ability to defend Steveson's takedowns during the match. He said (via Bo Nickel YouTube, 1:04 onwards):
"That was pretty crazy man, that was like shocking, I didn't expect it all but you could kind of just see it as the match was going. I think something that impressed me was Wyatt's scrambling and his ability to kind of defend the takedowns because we haven't really seen anybody since you (Anthony Cassar) to be able to like defend Gable and fend him off."
Anthony Cassar, Nickal's partner in the video and a former Penn State wrestler, defeated Gable Steveson during the 2019 NCAA Championships and eventually went on to win the National title that year.
