Blue White Illustrated

T he only Minnesotan ever to win six state championships, Mark Hall enjoyed one of the most accom- plished careers in the history of American high school wrestling. It appears, how- ever, that college audiences will have to wait one more year to see him in action. Now a true freshman, Hall is beginning his Penn State career as a redshirt. "I'm just enjoying the process," said Hall, who has already competed this season at open tournaments unat- tached at 174 pounds. "No matter where I am or where I'm at on the ladder, I'm just having fun and wrestling to get better every day." That's a scary thought for Hall's op- ponents, as he's already a winner of the Dave Schultz High School Excel- lence Award in addition to being a two-time USA Wrestling junior freestyle national champion. Not to mention his success at Apple Valley. But head coach Cael Sanderson is taking a gradual approach to Hall's rise while also factoring his interna- tional freestyle pursuits into the equation. "Every time you go to a new level there are new challenges," Sanderson said. "You have to stay hungry, re- main fearless and maintain those qualities that help [Hall] improve. He is extremely talented and knows how to win." Although Sanderson has chosen to begin the season with Hall on a red- shirt, he's not ruling out a possible debut in the lineup later in the sea- son, depending on the progress of both Hall and the projected starters at 174. "You can't just completely take anything off the table, ever," Sander- son said. "Until the Big Ten tourna- ment starts, as you saw last year, we are trying to put our best team out there, and until that tournament starts, who knows? But that's not the plan right now." – T.O. Standout freshman Hall expected to redshirt "I'm really good on top and I'm good on the mat," said Cortez, a native of Carol Stream, Ill. "I think that's going to be re- ally important. That's really important in college wrestling, being good on top, bot- tom and being able to get a takedown and ride a guy – not just ride but turn a guy as well. That's something that I think I'm re- ally good at and something that's going to separate me from being just an All-Amer- ican to really being a national champ." Elsewhere, freshman Vincenzo Joseph, a Pittsburgh native who was PSU's blue- chip recruit in 2015, comes off a redshirt season just in time to fill a vacancy at 165. With sophomore Bo Nickal jumping to 184, and Shakur Rasheed and Geno Morelli – last year's starters at 165 – mov- ing up a weight class as well, Joseph helps bolster the middle of the lineup. Like his teammates, he has tall aspirations for his first season as a starter. "I'm ready to have some fun compet- ing," Joseph said. "I've been ready for over a year now. I'm really excited. I'm just going to go out and wrestle like I know I can and have fun while I do it." At 197, junior Matt McCutcheon opened the season as the starter. A two-time NCAA qualifier at 184, McCutcheon is ranked 16th and opened with a 4-2 win over Army's 11th-ranked Rocco Cay- wood. Meanwhile redshirt freshman An- thony Cassar from Rocky Hill, N.J., continues to heal from an injury that played a part in keeping him off the roster last year. Then, at heavyweight, there is Nick Nevills, who enters his redshirt sopho- more season with only nine matches under his belt. One year removed from surgery on his chest/upper arm, the Clo- vis, Calif., native said he's feeling healthy and ready to go. "I just feel really confident," Nevills said. "Mentally and emotionally, I'm just a lot more there and ready to compete and ready to battle for however long it takes to go out there and do my best and make the Nittany Lion fan base proud and myself proud and my parents proud. I'm just re- ally ready to go." In spite of shake-ups at more than half of the weight classes, the mission remains the same for the defending NCAA cham- pions, a team that has won five of the past six national tournaments and enters the season ranked No. 2 behind only Okla- homa State in the NWCA/USA Today Coaches Poll. It's national championship or bust. Gone, however, are three All-Americans who played critical roles on the past five teams. They don't make duplicates of Megaludis, Conaway and McIntosh. Only two starters – Zain Retherford (149) and Jason Nolf (157) – are ranked atop their weight class, and with the amount of first-timers in key spots, it presents a new share of challenges for a coaching staff entering its eighth year at Penn State. "[It] keeps you on your toes," Sanderson said. "[Whether] you're trying to help a senior win or trying to get a true fresh- man ready, everything is a little different. We have a variety of those opportunities, but overall our goal is to win. We believe that if we continue to improve, then we'll have a great chance to win at the end. But the journey between now and then is ex- citing." ■ HALL

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