Blue White Illustrated

MARK HALL Hall was making his third finals appearance. He's won one, but both losses were to Arizona State's Zahid Valencia, who won this tourna- ment's meeting with a second-period takedown and deciding third-period escape for the 4-3 victory. The two have split four bouts in their careers. "We started to learn each other's techniques, our habits that we do," Valencia said. "But that's what's so great about this rivalry, just [that] we get to learn off of each other. I beat him with one thing and then he'll beat me with the next, then I've just got to learn a new way to win. So we're just con- stantly learning new moves, new areas to work on, to be successful." ROMAN BRAVO-YOUNG and NICK LEE Freshman Bravo-Young won three con- secutive bouts after losing to DeSanto to clinch an All-America spot. Lee lost in the semifinals by a point to Ohio State's Joey McKenna. Bravo-Young (25-7) said the seven bouts he wrestled wore him out, but he proclaimed that he was "going to win this thing in a couple years… maybe next year." And Lee (31-4), who finished fifth for the second consecutive season, admit- ted that it was frustrating losing to McKenna by a single point for the sec- ond time. "I'm not where I want to be, I can see that," Lee said. "I want to be na- tional champ, so it's pretty clear." ■ Penn State said to be in contention to host upcoming Olympic trials N ot everyone likes to watch the big guys lumber around on the mat at a major wrestling tournament. Some fans leave to beat tra?c jams and don't really care who beats whom in the 285-pound division. But you could count on two hands and maybe one single leg the number of people who left before the heavy- weights rumbled in Friday night's NCAA Wrestling Championships semi- final round at PPG Paints Arena on March 22. There is intrigue when four athletic wrestlers ranging in weight from 228 to 278 pounds have a berth in the champi- onship >nals riding on the results of the two bouts. And even more when at least half of the arena crowd of nearly 19,000 have an interest in Penn State's Anthony Cassar, who, at 228 pounds, was by far the lightest member of a quartet that also included Minnesota's Gable Steve- son (265), Lehigh's Jordan Wood (275) and Oklahoma State's Derek White (240). It didn't hurt that, in order, White, Cassar, Steveson and Wood were the top four seeds. Or that Cassar had handed Steveson his >rst loss 12 days earlier. Or that Cassar's only loss of the season was to White. Or that White's only loss was to Steveson. Of the 64 heavyweight bouts con- tested, only four were decided by one point and only 10 others ended with a two-point margin of victory. Those numbers by themselves showed how ex- citing the heavyweight class was at this year's tournament. In general, more Cassar completes dream season by claiming title at heavyweight David Taylor, the former Penn State great turned world champion, might have a chance to compete for an Olympic berth amid some very familiar surroundings. At an alumni gathering in Pittsburgh during the NCAA Wrestling Champi- onships last month, Taylor reportedly said that the 2020 Olympic Wrestling Trials would be taking place at the Bryce Jordan Center. Taylor's com- ments were reported by Onward State. A USA Wrestling official told the Centre Daily Times in January 2018 that Penn State was under consideration as a potential site for the trials but that nothing had been finalized. The official said that coach Cael Sanderson had ap- proached USA Wrestling several years earlier about bringing the event to Uni- versity Park. As of late March, neither Penn State athletic director Sandy Barbour nor USA Wrestling had confirmed that the BJC would play host to the trials. The wrestling organization said only that an announcement is expected "soon." If the trials were to come to University Park, Taylor, who won the world cham- pionship at 86 kilograms last year in Budapest, would be one of several po- tential competitors with Penn State ties. Three-time national champions Zain Retherford and Bo Nickal could also be in the mix, as well as Frank Molinaro, who made the 2016 Olympic team and has been training for 2020. Also, according to FloWrestling, at least four members of the current team meet the eligibility criteria for an Olympic redshirt: Mason Manville, Jarod Verkleeren, Mark Hall and Brady Berge. Penn State has hosted several major wrestling events over the years. The Jordan Center was the site of the 1999 NCAA championships, and last year Rec Hall played host to the Final X World trials. Rec Hall would likely be too small to accommodate an event of the magnitude of the Olympic trials. The past three sites have all had seating capacities above 15,000. ■ By JIM CARLSON Blue White Contributor

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