Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1495456
A P R I L 2 0 2 3 6 3 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M "My goal is to compete for the national championship every year. It's real simple." Sanderson Still, Pennsylvania was a high school wrestling hotbed, and the abundance of in-state talent only served to reinforce per- ceptions that the program was not all it could be. In Troy Sunderland's 11 seasons as head coach, the Lions never finished higher than third in the Big Ten Tournament and placed outside of the top 10 at nationals seven times. In their final NCAA Tournament under Sunderland, they fin- ished behind seven other Big Ten teams, as well as a couple of regional rivals in Edinboro and Cornell. Iowa State finished third that same year, having qualified all 10 of its starters for the third time in as many seasons under Sanderson. The Cyclones seemed to be building a program that could challenge Iowa after years of Hawkeye dominance. That's one reason why Sander- son's name didn't come up when Penn State wrestling fans speculated about the program's future following Sunderland's resignation in April 2009. The names that did come up fre- quently were Rob Koll of Cornell, Kerry McCoy of Maryland and Pat Santoro of Lehigh. Sanderson's interest in the job remained a closely guarded secret until shortly before Penn State announced his hiring. The wrestling community began buzzing about it on April 16 when reports of Sanderson's involvement with the Lions started circulating online. The following day, PSU made the appointment official. At his introductory news conference at Rec Hall on April 20, Sanderson said he saw vast untapped potential in the Nittany Lion program. He had called it "a sleeping giant" in a blog post shortly after taking the job, and he echoed that appraisal as he stood at the podium facing an audience of reporters, athletes and fans. "My plans are big, and my vision is big," he said. "It's just a matter of getting it done. I don't want to stand up here and talk a lot. I just want to get started, and we'll see what we can do. "We're going to build on the legacy of Penn State. My goal is to compete for the national championship every year. It's real simple." Balance Of Power Back in Iowa, Tom Brands greeted the blockbuster news with his usual competitive brio. Speaking at a gathering of Hawk- eye boosters shortly after Sanderson's hiring, the Iowa coach admitted that "something serious came down the pike today." He noted that PSU was likely to see its recruiting fortunes improve in the months and years ahead and conceded that the Nittany Lions' wrestling facilities, which had been upgraded during Sunderland's tenure, were "nice." But, he added, "That doesn't mean anything to me." What did mean something was that the Hawkeyes had won the past two NCAA titles and were taking aim at a third. If Brands foresaw a shift in the sport's balance of power, he didn't let on. "We've got something really special going," he said. "You want to keep it going. There's no greater motivation than being able to do things over and over and over again at the expense of your opponent. There's no greater satisfaction than being able to accomplish that at the expense of your opponent. "We have a lot of guys ready to take the next step to domina- tion. We're greedy, because we love success, we love winning, we love the challenge." Iowa continued to enjoy success in the season that followed. The Hawkeyes romped to a 29-6 dual meet victory in their first match against Sanderson's Nittany Lions, and they also finished first at nationals, topping second-place Cornell by 44.5 points. Penn State, meanwhile, placed ninth at NCAAs. Of the six PSU wrestlers who qualified for the tournament, the highest finisher was ninth-seeded Dan Val- limont, who reached the 165-pound final before falling 9-3 to top-seeded Andrew Howe of Wisconsin. Only two others — Frank Molinaro at 149 and Cyler Sanderson at 157 — earned All-America status. Winning Time There might not have been a prefabricated dynasty awaiting Sanderson in State College, but his efforts to build a title win- ner took less time than expected. In 2011, Molinaro and heralded redshirt freshman David Taylor reached the NCAA finals at 149 and 157 pounds, re- spectively, while 184-pounder Quentin Wright became the first Sanderson-coached PSU wrestler to claim an individual championship, upsetting Lehigh's second-seeded Robert Hamlin 5-2 in the final. As a team, Penn State amassed 107.5 points to outdistance Cornell (93.5), Iowa (86.5) and Oklahoma State (70.5) for the national championship, the first by a team from east of the Mississippi River since PSU won its previous title in 1953. Andrew Long, a 133-pound sophomore, had two falls en route to a third-place finish that year, contributing to a bonus- point barrage that enabled PSU to clinch the team title before the final round had even begun. After the tournament, Long talked excitedly about wanting to bring another trophy back to the Lorenzo Wrestling Com- plex in 2012. "It's something that should belong over here," he said. "Hopefully, we're going to keep it over here for a couple of years." The Nittany Lions have done that and more in the years since. In addition to the 10 NCAA team championship tro- phies they've brought back to State College during Sand- erson's tenure, they've laid claim to 34 individual crowns and have given no indication that they're anywhere close to finished. As it turns out, there is no greater motivation than being able to do things over and over and over again. ■