Blue White Illustrated

A little more than 12 hours after Penn State's football team won the Big Ten Championship Game in Indianapolis, the wrestling team continued the school's eventful sporting weekend with a 30-10 victory over Lehigh, a top-10 opponent, in the Bryce Jordan Center. The dual meet overlapped a celebra- tion of the football team's return to campus, and the heavy traffic caused many fans to arrive late. Those fans missed seeing the Nittany Lions drop two of their first three bouts. But by the time the 149-pound match began, a crowd that was officially listed at more than 15,000 had settled in – just in time to see national champion Zain Rether- ford score a second-period fall over No. 9 Laike Gardner. The pin in 3 minutes, 55 seconds gave Penn State a lead that it would not surrender. "Great atmosphere," head coach Cael Sanderson said afterward. "We're really thankful that so many people showed. I figured most of them would still be in Indiana, but we're glad a few of them made their way back and the people chose to come out and support us. We appreciate it." Freshman Nick Suriano defeated No. 4 Darian Cruz at 125 to put Penn State on the board first, but Jered Cortez (133) and Jimmy Gulibon (141) dropped deci- sions to give the Mountain Hawks an advantage. Retherford's fall got Penn State rolling again, and it won five of the next six matches, including a pin by Bo Nickal (184). It was Nickal's seventh win of the season, all by fall. This one, over Kyle Gentile, clinched the win for PSU with two bouts to go. "Things kind of dropped off there a little bit after [the losses at 133 and 141]," Sanderson said. "Cortez had a good learning experience [in a 12-4 loss to Scott Parker], and Gulibon was right there [against No. 3 Randy Cruz, who won 2-0.] And then Zain comes out there and gets everyone rolling again. It's part of being a team, and these guys are competing as a team. It's good to see." Jason Nolf upended Kent Lane with a 25-9 technical fall at 157, as the referee cut the match short by 21 seconds. Matt McCutcheon (197) also scored bonus points after a 12-2 major decision against Ben Haas. The Nittany Lions won the takedown battle, 27-7, and claimed seven of 10 bouts against Lehigh. In addition to Cortez and Gulibon, Shakur Rasheed (174) also fell, 6-3, to No. 19 Ryan Preisch, despite holding an early lead. Suriano was honored with the Ridge Riley Award, which goes to the meet's outstanding wrestler. His opponent, Cruz, was one of two Lehigh wrestlers ranked among the top five in the coun- try. After a scoreless first period, Suri- ano tacked on all seven of his points in the second with an escape, takedown and a four-point near fall to win, 7-0. "I was definitely trying to pin him," Suriano said. "It was close. I think I had him for a couple seconds, but you've got to earn it. I was trying my hardest to get the pin, but it was real close. It would have been awesome to stick him in front of the big crowd. The place would have went crazy. But I did my job. I stuck with a hard effort, a full effort like Coach Cael always talks about. I think I could have done a little more in the third period to get that takedown, but I did my job and I shut him out. Getting the pin would have been great, but I'm happy with what happened." When Suriano took Cruz down and turned him to his shoulders with a turk, Lehigh head coach Pat Santoro said he knew that it was a decisive moment. "That was the match," he said. "You give up a six-point move and it's hard to bat- tle back against a kid like Suriano." Although fans were still filing into their seats for that electric moment, Sanderson was pleased with the week- end outcome, despite a partially late ar- riving crowd . "We're one team," he said. "If our football team is in the Big Ten champi- onship, we'll take that every year. No pressure, Coach Franklin. Our team was pumped. We were cheering this morning about being very proud of them, very happy for them. It's great. It was kind of an early start but being live on the Big Ten Network, it's kind of a give-and- take, so that's just part of the deal, so we're happy with the turnout." Penn State returned to Rec Hall the following weekend and had another strong crowd waiting for it. In what was the 31st consecutive sellout in Rec Hall, the Nittany Lions cruised past Bing- hamton, 46-0. – T.O. Nittany Lions overcome Lehigh in BJC dual meet When Sanderson finished his talk, Franklin had one more thing to say. Assistant coach Charles Huff had pre- viously insisted to his fellow football coaches that if he had to, he could hit a fastball thrown by a major league pitcher. Many of his colleagues scoffed. Huff also said that if he had to square off against Sanderson in a wrestling match, he would be able to hold his own. The football coaches weren't buying that, ei- ther. So when Sanderson was done, Franklin spoke up, figuring maybe this was the time they could all find out firsthand. "This was a great opportunity to call Huff out in front of the whole team," Franklin said. "So when Cael took his keys out of his pocket and his pen and set it on the [table], Huff's face changed and the whole room went crazy and that was kind of the end of that. "Huff was a good sport, and so was Cael. It was great to bring Cael in to talk to our team. It was a great message and it was a nice change-up, because some- times they're just hearing the same mes- sages from us over and over again, so we like to bring different people in to give them a different perspective." ■

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