Blue White Illustrated

DOUBLE TROUBLE I nterested in ranking Penn State's all-time greatest wrestlers? Don't look to former Nit- tany Lion coach Rich Lorenzo for help. There might be some obvious names to consider, such as David Taylor, Ed Ruth, Jason Nolf, Bo Nickal and Zain Retherford. But Lorenzo wants no part of having to put them in order. "If you had to rank them, you'd have to rank them all No. 1," he said, taking not only the easy way out but most likely the only way out of that particular debate. It was five seasons ago when Taylor and Ruth graduated from the program, leaving behind seven NCAA finals appearances and five titles, and leaving the program's many fans dis- traught because of the prevailing thought that they might never again see a combination quite like the Taylor-Ruth tandem. But along came Nolf and Nickal who, along with Retherford, redshirted during the 2014- 15 season when Penn State went 11-4 and placed sixth at the NCAA tournament after winning team titles the previous four seasons. Both wrestlers are quick to say they didn't carry coach Cael Sanderson's program on their collective shoulders, not with a supporting cast of wrestlers like Retherford and Nico Megaludis and Morgan McIntosh and Nick Nevills and Mark Hall and Vincenzo Joseph. That group, along with other solid, depend- able wrestlers such as Jordan Conaway, Nick Lee and Shakur Rasheed, helped Penn State build a streak of three consecutive NCAA crowns, and the tag team of Nolf-Nickal-Hall- Joseph-Lee-Rasheed, along with Anthony Cassar, has the Nittany Lions sitting in the fa- vorite's spot again in 2019. The majority of those who follow college wrestling, though, likely would agree that out of the aforementioned group of elite wrestlers, the duo of Nolf and Nickal was the most dy- namic. Lorenzo, who coached at Penn State from 1978-92, is the architect of the highly success- ful Nittany Lion Wrestling Club/Olympic Re- gional Training Center and is still close to the program. He described Taylor and Ruth as his- torically great performers… just as practically everyone else has described them. And then? "I was a little skeptical of Nolf and Bo only because of experience, but you knew these kids were good," Lorenzo said. "But I didn't realize how good they were until the last few years. If you had to rank them, you'd have to rank them all No. 1. "It's so exciting to see two guys come in… and in between, Retherford was here, too. It was the kind of thing that, wow, unbelievable, and it's the kind of thing that just has carried Penn State to [a position as] truly the envy of a lot of programs and a lot of fans. I think that's just tremendous." How tremendous remains to be seen, but pretty doggone tremendous is a fair assess- | T O U R N A M E N T P R E V I E W SHOW STOPPER Nickal has dis- played a flair for the dramatic dur- ing a career in which he's won 115 matches and two national champi- onships. Photo by Mark Selders/ Penn State Athlet- ics Jason Nolf and Bo Nickal form a potent point-scoring tandem for a Nittany Lion wrestling team that heads to Pittsburgh in search of its fourth consecutive NCAA team title

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