he tell-all sign, whether Matt Mc-
Cutcheon was going to wrestle or
not, occurred during practice the
Tuesday before. Anytime you're
battling it out with a national champ, a
four-time All-American, an aspiring
Olympic athlete – in this case, David
Taylor – you had better be feeling OK.
That's what the sophomore from Apollo,
Pa., one of the Big Ten's highest-rated
184-pounders, was doing the week before
Penn State's match against Ohio State,
two weeks a>er su leg that he wore in practice
against Taylor, McCutcheon used a :rst-
period takedown and 2 minutes, 2 seconds
of riding time to win, 4-0. With his vic-
tories against Dudley and Courts, Mc-
Cutcheon avenged the back-to-back losses
that knocked him out of last season's
NCAA tournament.
"It means a lot," he said. "I thought
about that match [against Courts] for a
long time. This one was important to me.
Coming back, it was pretty important to
get back. You just want to wrestle in front
of [15,983] people like this. It makes you
want to go out there and score points. …
I'm feeling good, everything is feeling
great now, so I'm back and focused on
getting better and to 100 percent."
His head coach agrees that he's feeling
OK, as it appears McCutcheon is contin-
uing to wrestle at his best.
"McCutcheon's confidence is real high,"
Sanderson said. "He's been wrestling
real well. We're glad he's still able to
wrestle. A couple weeks ago, it looked
like he might be out for three years, the
way he was rolling around [at Illinois].
So we're just glad he's back – brace or
WRESTLING
PAIN MANAGEMENT
Injuries continue, but Nittany Lions just keep on rolling
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