Blue White Illustrated

July 2013

Penn State Sports Magazine

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26|CAEL SANDERSON Q&A Fresh off his third national championship, Penn State's coach reflects on both the past and the future in a oneon-one with BWI. 30|FEMALE ATHLETE OF THE YEAR Senior Christine Nairn scored plenty of goals for Penn State, none more important than the one in overtime that put the Nittany Lions in their first College Cup final. that went in different directions. The trainer thought that I maybe had to go to a specialist, but they just sewed me right up." No fracture, concussion or anything serious. He's left with only a gnarly scar that intersects the brow, but nothing a ball cap won't hide. Ruth, on the other hand, is left with some bragging rights, even if the move was inadvertent. What other Penn State athlete can say he dazed the greatest competitor in American wrestling history? That's not the reason Ruth is being honored as Blue White Illustrated's Male Athlete of the Year, although it does put him in some pretty exclusive company. Rather, Ruth is being celebrated for his sheer dominance throughout his 2012-13 national championship campaign, his second in as many years. After finishing the season 33-0, including 27 wins that came with bonus points and a 12-4 major decision over Lehigh's Robert Hamlin in the NCAA final, Ruth will be riding a 68-match win streak into his fifth and final year at Penn State. It is the longest active streak in Division I and the longest in Nittany Lion history. If he stays healthy, earning 100 consecutive victories is feasible. It's also a feat that hasn't been accomplished since Sanderson. It's certainly a goal for Ruth, a native of Harrisburg, Pa., but you probably won't hear him talk about it. If he wrestles his best each match, he says, there's no need to worry about the outcome. He's got a similar view of the Hodge Trophy, wrestling's equivalent of the Heisman and an award that has narrowly eluded Ruth each of the past two seasons. In 2012 Ruth finished second behind teammate David Taylor, and this past season, Cornell's Kyle Dake took home the hardware, with Ruth finishing sec- 32|COACH OF THE YEAR Bill O'Brien remade the Penn State football program, leading it out of a crisis and back into the national spotlight in a remarkable debut season. But a big question lingers: What comes next? 36|MOMENTS TO REMEMBER The football team kept it together, while the men's basketball team pulled off an upset for the ages. 44|MALE FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR Trevor Howard ended a 50year drought by claiming the national championship in the floor exercise. 46|FEMALE FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR Outside hitter Megan Courtney helped get the Nittany Lions back to women's volleyball's main event. CASIMIR LOXSOM MICHAEL MAUTI TRACK & FIELD The senior middle-distance specialist from New Haven, Conn., was named Big Ten Athlete of the Year following the indoor season and won first-team All-America honors for the fifth time in his career. When the outdoor season began, he picked right up where he left off, posting the nation's secondfastest 800-meter time (1 minute, 46.77 seconds) at the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, Calif. MICHAEL MAUTI FOOTBALL What's left to say about Mauti that hasn't already been said? He played a pivotal role in holding the football team together when it was at rock bottom last summer. Then he went on to have a stellar senior season – so stellar (95 tackles, three forced Steve Manuel

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