Penn State will open up its season with a meet against Oregon State and Sacred Heart. With this comes a pretty big matchup at heavyweight where Penn States Greg Kerkvliet will take on Oregon States Gary Traub.
Both of these competitors are now ranked inside the top 20 where Kerkvliet ranks just inside the top 5. Traub as we all know became famous off his matches against Stanford and Penn State where he beat two really good opponents late in the match earning the nick name “Gas Tank Gary”.
Kerkvliet has had really solid showings these past couple months more notably with a win over national finalist Mason Parris at the Olympic Trials. He will be looking to carry the freestyle success back into the folkstyle scene now that he is healthy and recovered from the injury that he suffered last season.
I am pretty sure that most people see this match going in favor of Kerkvliet by a decent margin, however that being said Traub does have a very good ability to tire people out. Will that work against Kerkvliet a guy who is also very lean and in good shape, I personally do not think so.
Overall the predictions for this match would have to be Kerkvliet by a major decision. Mainly because of the sheer length that Kerkvliet has will be a problem and his ability to ride and turn people on top is also very good meaning Traub will have limited time to even try and manufacture points from nuetral.
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