Blue White Illustrated

May 2013

Penn State Sports Magazine

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dating back to 2010. He had won the 197-pound NCAA championship in 2011 before taking an Olympic redshirt last season and winning a bronze medal at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials. Kilgore���s background and accolades made Wright���s championship all the more remarkable. But in the immediate aftermath of the final ��� after his arm had been raised and after he had blown kisses to the Penn State crowd ��� Wright was more concerned with the outcome of the team race than his individual accomplishment. The Cowboys had scored 17.5 points during the consolation round earlier in the day, and their 174-pounder, Chris Perry, had edged Penn State���s Matt Brown in the opening match of the finals, giving Oklahoma State a onepoint lead heading into Ed Ruth���s 184pound final. But Ruth enabled Penn State to retake the lead with a 12-4 major decision over Lehigh���s Robert Hamlin, and his victory put Penn State���s three remaining finalists ��� Wright, Nico Megaludis and David Taylor ��� in position to clinch the championship. ���The team race is really important to me, personally,��� an out-of-breath Wright said inside the media room after his victory. ���Winning, too, but more importantly the team race. I knew one of us had to take it upon our shoulders to get it done, and I thought, ���Why not me? Let���s go out there. Let���s win this. Let���s clinch this so it will take the pressure off of Nico and David.��� ��� For Penn State, it was a good thing he did. Megaludis fell to Illinois��� Jesse Delgado, 7-4, in the 125-pound final, and Taylor dropped the much-hyped 165-pound championship bout to Cornell���s Kyle Dake, 5-4. Wright���s victory, the last of his career, was enough to seal the Nittany Lions��� third consecutive crown. Head coach Cael Sanderson described it as ���a clutch match, obviously.��� ���He did an amazing job,��� Sanderson added. ���He just wrestled great. That was a big, strong kid with a lot of experience, and the match went back and forth. So you really got to see what Quentin is made out of. He fought through it and came out on top, and I���m happy for him winning two national Mark Selders/Penn State Athletic Communications GOING OUT ON TOP Wright finished his career with 116 wins, 10th-most in school history. titles. It���s a big deal getting your hand raised and being a four-time All-American.��� Only the sixth four-timer in Penn State history, Wright will forever hold a spot in the school���s wrestling lore. And not only will it be for his 116 career victories ��� the 10th-highest total in Nittany Lion history ��� but also for his association with the team���s fans. Having grown up just shy of 13 miles from the University Park campus, Wright has been described by his coach as a ���hometown hero.��� He won two PIAA championships at Bald Eagle High in Wingate and also won the Nittany Lion Open as a high school senior. It sometimes seemed as though he had been around the program for a decade ��� an impression that wasn���t too far from reality considering that he started working out with the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club when he was in his first few years of high school. Maybe that���s why Wright���s career is such an emotional subject for Sanderson, the 2013 NCAA and Big Ten Coach of the Year. One of only two graduating senior starters, Wright was part of the transition period following Sanderson���s hire in 2009, and it was Sanderson who decided to redshirt Wright in his second year on campus. After storming to a sixth-place finish at NCAAs under former coach Troy Sunderland as a true freshman, Wright met with Sanderson during their first year together. It was a somewhat controversial decision at the time, given Wright���s success the previous year, but it ultimately paid off. In addition to winning his second consecutive national title and fourth All-America honor, Wright went 32-0 as a senior, his first undefeated collegiate season. He had five victories at the NCAA tournament, including a pin over Minnesota���s Scott Schiller in 2 minutes, 49 seconds during the quarterfinals. All told, he contributed 22 team points to Penn State���s title run. While redshirt-sophomore-to-be Morgan McIntosh is waiting in the wings at 197 ��� early reports said the California high school state champ was weighing over 215 pounds in March ��� Wright will be nearly impossible to replace inside the Lorenzo Wrestling Complex. So what���s next for the graduating senior? He plans to keep his options open for a couple years. He wants to continue to train in freestyle in hope of securing a spot on the 2016 U.S. Olympic team, but he also would like to take at least a part-time job so he can continue to enhance his business resume. ���I eventually want to get into a human resources department,��� said Wright, a double-major who will graduate with

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