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had to crush while training for this mo- ment. The question was met with a smile from Retherford and laughter from the room of reporters. Retherford replied by explaining how he grew up on a pumpkin farm in Benton – only a couple hours from New York, but a world away from the bright city lights. The watermelons that his family grows might be smaller than the commercial-grade fruit that grocery stores stock, he said, but they are "harder" than anything you can buy. "It was dense," he added. "It looked small, but it was dense. It was a lot of fun." Whether the fruit squeezing helped lift him to an individual national champi- onship will probably never be known, but his head coach, Cael Sanderson, said that Retherford undoubtedly "made a huge jump from his freshman year." Sanderson opted to redshirt Retherford as a true sophomore, and when he re- turned in his third season as a redshirt sophomore, he won all 34 of his match- es, earning bonus points in all but four of those wins. At the national tourney in Madison Square Garden, all five of his victories were by either technical fall, major decision or pin, and those results helped Retherford put up one of the most notable performances of the entire tournament – not just of Penn State's wrestlers but of the entire 330-person field – although it was Ohio State heavyweight Kyle Snyder who was hon- ored as Outstanding Wrestler. Olympic gold medalist Jordan Burroughs tweeted during the Nittany Lion standout's final match that "Retherford is too good to even get you excited during his matches. Just too dominant." Retherford, who hadn't been beaten since the 2014 NCAA tournament, in which he placed fifth and earned his first All-America citation, set the tone for a strong 2016 tourney with a 21-6 techni- cal fall over Coleman Hammond of Cal- State Bakersfield in the first round. In round two, wrestling against Edinboro's Patricio Lugo, Retherford surrendered the opening takedown before he put the watermelon squeeze to his opponent, tallying a 15-4 lead before sticking Lugo's shoulders to the mat for the pin in 6 minutes, 37 seconds. His quarterfinal match lasted only 2:12, as he pinned Justin Oliver of Central Michigan, thus securing his sec- ond career All-America honor. Matched up in the semifinal with Michigan's Alex Pantaleo, whom he had pinned twice earlier in the season, Retherford notched yet another fall, pinning the Wolverine wrestler in 4:49. That result set up a rematch of the Big Ten final against Sorensen. Retherford had won a 4-0 decision in Des Moines, Iowa, to claim the conference title, but in the season finale he claimed a more- decisive 9-point victory. Said Rether- ford, "If you've already defeated a guy once before, you've got to show up, be- cause you know he's gunning for you the second time." Show up, he did. Retherford racked up 3:03 of riding time against Sorensen and scored four takedowns – two of which were attempted from a distance, instead of the normal short-range shots that fans often see from Retherford. Diving in low on Sorensen's legs, Retherford bare- ly got his fingertips to the back of his opponent's knees, but it was enough for him to suck the legs in close to his chest and then complete the takedown with authority. Few wrestlers have the grip strength to finish such a shot. Then again, few wrestlers bust watermelons in the off- season. "I train for this every day," Retherford said afterward. "I have a great coaching staff and great opponents who push me every day. We've got five guys in the fi- nals, and I wrestle every one of them [in practice]. Even the guys who aren't out there wrestling right now, who are back home – second-, third-string guys – they work hard. They push me in summer training, go on runs and stuff and we just push each other to get better. We have fun in the process – that's a big part." ZAIN TRAIN Retherford completed an undefeat- ed season with five wins at nationals, earning bonus points in all of them. Photo by Mark Selders/Penn State Athletics

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