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employees on hand that Sunday), they reached their goal. It wasn't easy, especially considering the ice storm that hit the greater Mid-Atlantic that afternoon. "This one was a little unknown for us because we didn't know, Cody said be" forehand. "Are we going to get 10,000 or are we going to get 12,000? Are we going to actually sell this place out? We didn't know." Cody chose Taylor as the selling point. He said Taylor is a once-in-a-generation athlete who draws large crowds, and large crowds could mean new wrestling fans. Cael, of course, is always trying to create new wrestling fans, so he finally bought in, seeing the event as a perfect opportunity to promote his sport. "When you get a fan who shows up for the first match, he said, " "you've got to hook them, and hook them for life." Bloom brought his father, Richard, a longtime high school wrestling supporter who had never seen Taylor compete live. And although the team score was a 19point rout, and Taylor pinned Geno Morelli in 3:09, fans at least got the chance to see him compete. The Blooms were impressed. "My idea from the beginning was that we have to market our individuals and make them larger than life," Cody said. "That can be tricky with a team because we sit [in the practice room with] 37 guys. On the mat, everybody is the same, so there were challenges as a coach when you're marketing an individual. At the other end, those individuals who are being marketed, in a way, they've earned that." Taylor appreciated being the focal point of the event. In fact, he relished it. But he might be even more appreciative of the memory that remains from that Sunday afternoon. That he owes to Cody. "We obviously had to compete to the highest of our ability, but we could also sit back and realize how special it was," Taylor recalled the Tuesday after the BJC dual. "What Cody did to get that many people out there was impressive. Really, it was a show. It was a pretty cool show." I Country strong Phipps gains strength, experience on the big stage | es Phipps entered the Penn State wrestling room as a guy coming off a Pennsylvania state title, a four-time All-State selection, someone who had lost only three matches in his final three years of high school. For the first several days – months, really – he left practice feeling, as he put it, humbled. That's just what happens when your workout partners are national champs like Ed Ruth and David Taylor, AllAmericans like Matt Brown. It wasn't that Phipps didn't know what he was getting into. It's that he didn't know what it would feel like. "There's something about physically not being able to do anything, and mentally being able to overcome that, to know that it's not going to happen, " he said. "You just have to battle through it. " How did he do it? Phipps repeats the phrase a lot: "I worked my butt off. " And that's what landed him in the Nittany Lions' lineup when two-time NCAA champion Ed Ruth was suspended for a month after being charged with DUI and redshirt sophomore James Frascella lost his first two matches. Phipps responded with back-to-back major decisions at 184 pounds, including one in front of an NCAArecord dual meet crowd at the Bryce Jordan Center. And, yeah, he really enjoyed the opportunity. "I don't major kids very often in the room," he said. "I don't necessarily win that often in the room." Which isn't the only reason Phipps wants to be in the lineup. When he was a high school senior, he was impressed that Matt Brown recorded victories at three weight classes – 174, W WES PHIPPS Mark Selders/PSU Athletics Commuications 184 and 197 – when the team needed him to fill in at those weights. Phipps is certified to wrestle as low as 174 – he credits working 10-hour days at his father's landscaping business in the summer heat with "keeping me pretty leaned up" – and feels comfortable as high as 197, and he'd like to follow in Brown's footsteps. "I really respect what Matt Brown did. He helped out the team any way he could," he said. "I've tried to put myself in that position." That's how Phipps found himself competing at 197 pounds against Ohio State, when Ruth returned to his 184pound spot. Phipps lost by two points to fifth-ranked Nick Heflin, who needed to counter a Phipps shot for a thirdperiod takedown. Phipps posted a 144-14 record at Grove City High School, winning the Class AA state title at 182 pounds. He chose Penn State over Kent State and Maryland, he said, because he wanted a school with a "big-time program" that had a "feeling like a town."

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