Blue White Illustrated

J ason Nolf said he didn't know he was on the cusp of breaking the school record for most career falls prior to the Southern Scuffle in Tennessee. Team- mate Bo Nickal claims he doesn't use being just a few falls behind Nolf as any extra motivation. And their leader – Penn State wrestling coach Cael Sanderson – well, he was informed of a couple of en- tries into the Nittany Lion history book by the public address announcer at the Jan. 1-2 Chattanooga tournament. Despite the underwhelming support by the wrestlers and the coach about the on- going pin parade, the race to see which of those two two-time NCAA champions will be at the top of that list at season's end rages on. Heading into a dual meet against Nebraska on Jan. 18, they both were expected to have about 17 more chances to wrestle, including potential multiple bouts at the Big Ten and NCAA tournaments. Prior to the Nittany Lions' match against the Cornhuskers, Nolf had nine falls this season to bring his career total to 54, while Nickal had 10, raising his total to 51. Joining Nolf and Nickal in piling up pins this season have been two-time NCAA champion Vincenzo Joseph with eight and All-American Shakur Rasheed with six as of mid-January. Nolf passed former Penn State stars Zain Retherford, David Taylor and Josh Moore, each of whom had 53, and Nickal unquestionably will follow suit. The potential record, he said, doesn't mean as much as the fall itself. "That's how I Iike to wrestle," Nickal said. "The pin is the best thing you can do, right? It's for team points and it's ex- citing and that's something I've always been looking for, you know, since I started wrestling. I think it's something that's kind of been consistent." So has winning. Nolf got his 100th ca- reer victory when he earned a major decision over North- western's third-ranked Ryan Deakin on Jan. 11. Nickal al- ready had 102 heading into the match against the Wildcats, having eclipsed the century mark at the Scuffle. And that was news to his coach. "We hear those things when they an- nounce them on the loudspeaker," Sanderson said. "That's when I hear them. I heard Bo had a hundred wins and I was standing next to him and I said, 'What, did he take a year off? He barely got to a hundred.' " (Sander- son was 159-0 at Iowa State from 1999-2002.) "He's only had a couple losses [three] in his career. It's just different now; we don't wrestle as many matches as they did 10 or 20 years ago. But, yeah, I would have just assumed he already had 100 wins. "And I didn't know that Nolf was a pin away from leading Penn State in all-time pins, and that's amazing," Sanderson said. "It says a lot about Nolf because we W R E S T L I N G THE FALL GUYS Seniors Jason Nolf and Bo Nickal are pinning their way into the Penn State record book | PIN LEADER Nolf became the Nit- tany Lions' all- time leader in falls when he earned his 54th at the Southern Scuffle earlier this month. Photo by Mark Selders/Penn State Athletics

• Cover