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UNIVERSITY PARK -- Most wrestling fans recognize how dominant the Penn State wrestling team has been in the 13 years Cael Sanderson has been at the helm. But what they might not realize is how similar his career has been to legendary Iowa coach Dan Gable.
Gable coached the Hawkeyes from 1976 to 1997 and compiled what many consider to be the greatest stretch of dominance in the history of collegiate wrestling, if not collegiate sports in general. His teams amassed a 355-21-5 record in dual meets, won 15 national championships, crowned 45 national champions and 152 All-Americans.
In Gable's first 12 NCAA tournaments, his teams won nine championships, all in a row from 1978-86, claimed 86 All-Americans and 25 national champions.
In Sanderson's first 12 NCAA tournaments, his teams won nine championships (four in a row twice, 2011-14 and 2016-19), claimed 70 All-Americans and 32 national champions.
Gable's teams were known for producing in the quarterfinals, and his first 12 teams combined for a 70-18 record in that round. They were 50-20 in the semifinals and 25-25 in the finals.
Sanderson's teams are known for being nearly unbeatable in the semifinals and finals. Over 12 years, the Nittany Lions are 46-6 in the semifinals (30-2 since 2015) and 32-14 in the finals.
Since 2017, Penn State is 21-3 overall in the finals and has won 11 finals matches in a row, dating back to Mark Hall's loss to Arizona State's Zahid Valencia in the 2019 174-pound final.
If Sanderson's teams continue this run of success, it's likely that he could find himself at the top of a very exclusive list. His nine national championships places him third on the all-time list, behind Oklahoma State's Edward Gallagher (11) and Gable (15).
Here are some other fun facts from this year's championships:
¯ Penn State and Iowa are currently 1-2 in total All-Americans since 2010, with 70 and 69, respectively.
¯ Penn State's 32 national champions since 2010 are light years ahead of the second-place team, Cornell, over that span. The Big Red can claim 12. Iowa and Oklahoma State are tied for third with 10 each.
¯ Penn State's 32 champions over a span of 12 years not only equals the total of its three closest competitors in that time, but requires double that time for any team to match -- Iowa's tally reaches 32 only if you go back to 1998 (the Hawkeyes have had 33 since then).
¯ With its 10th title in program history, Penn State became the third school to reach double digits. It has a long way to go to catch second-place Iowa (24) and first-place Oklahoma State (34).
¯ Penn State has crowned one national champion in each of the last 11 tournaments. Minnesota is the only other school that has a current string longer than one year.
¯ Of the 199 multi-time champions in tournament history, 11 have won titles for Penn State in the past decade.
¯ Penn State scored the second-most match points at this year's tournament (294). Michigan was first with 297.
¯ With Max Dean's win at 197 pounds, he joined his brother, Gabe, a two-time champ for Cornell, as the third brother tandem to capture titles in the last 20 years. The Deans joined Ben and Max Askren and Mark and Chris Perry.
¯ Penn State's Roman Bravo-Young, Nick Lee and Aaron Brooks tied three other wrestlers -- Michigan's Nick Suriano, Northwestern's Ryan Deakin and Minnesota's Gable Steveson -- for a tournament-high 23 team points scored.
¯ A team from the Big Ten has won the last 15 national championships.
¯ This year's 10 NCAA champions hailed from 10 different states: Arizona (RBY), Colorado (Deakin), Indiana (Lee), Maryland (Brooks), Michigan (Dean), Minnesota (Steveson), New Jersey (Suriano), New York (Yanni Diakomihalis from Cornell), Pennsylvania (Carter Starocci) and Wisconsin (Keegan O'Toole from Missouri).