Blue White Illustrated

Ed Ruth's high-energy style proves too much for the rest of the 174-pound class to handle FAST AND LOOSE BY TIM OWEN Blue White Contributor S T. LOUIS, Mo. – Most wrestlers walk or sprint out of the tunnel be- fore their matches; he skips. Oth- ers could care less about the appear- ance of their hair; he dyes his teal. (Well, half of it anyway. His dye job gradually turned green just in time for St. Patrick's Day.) Some say Ed Ruth is an enigma on the wrestling mat, and not just because of his strength or his vice-grip cradle, but because of his carefree demeanor. Ruth is not, as he concedes, "a cook- ie-cutter mold" of your everyday wrestler. But it works for him, and it works extraordinarily well, as he proved at the 2012 NCAA Wrestling Champi- onships. Earning bonus points in all but one of his five bouts, Ruth cruised through the 174-pound bracket, cap- ping his run with a 13-2 major deci- sion over Nick Amuchastegui in the final. Ruth was determined to dominate his match against the Stanford senior. "I just wanted to suffocate him," he told the matside television reporter imme- diately after winning his first NCAA ti- tle. While Ruth usually doesn't fret over the storylines or past successes of his opponents, Amuchastegui was differ- ent. These two wrestlers had a histo- ry. During the 2011 national tourna- ment, Ruth defaulted out of his quar- terfinal match against Amuchastegui N.J. heavyweight transferring to PSU Losing just two starting seniors – Frank Molinaro (149 pounds) and Cameron Wade (285) – to graduation, Penn State has already begun reload- ing for another championship run. While Andrew Alton, a redshirt soph- 24 A P R I L 1 1 , 2 0 1 2 GREEN ENERGY Ruth takes Amuchastegui to the mat in the NCAA championship match. The Penn State sophomore scored a 13-2 major decision to claim his first title. due to a knee injury. Because Ruth was losing 9-2 at the time of the injury default, and because he came back to finish third at the tournament, mes- sage board critics questioned whether he was really hurt, or whether he was simply using a tactic to avoid having to complete the match. "A lot of people were saying that I was [or wasn't] hurt," Ruth said. Then he added, "What the people were saying on the Internet, it [gave] me a big drive just to prove them wrong." It was not as if he had to justify the legitimacy of the injury. He had expe- rienced knee problems before, under- omore who was a national qualifier at 141 in 2011, is expected to take over for Molinaro, the coaching staff might rely on a transfer to fill the void left by Wade. Jimmy Lawson, who won three con- secutive New Jersey state titles at Manchester Township High before de- ciding to play college football at Mon- mouth University, announced March 8 that he will be transferring to Penn Steve Manuel W E I G H T - B Y - W E I G H T 125 NICO MEGALUDIS Fr., No. 10 seed, 28-8 overall - All-American 1ST RD W, 13-5 maj. dec. Michael Martinez, Wyoming 2ND RD W, 7-3 dec. No. 7 Jarrod Patterson, Oklahoma QTRS W, 7-4 dec. No. 2 Zach Sanders, Minnesota SEMIS W, 3-2 (tb2) dec. No. 6 Frank Perrelli, Cornell FINAL L, 4-1 dec. No. 1 Matt McDonough, Iowa 133 FRANK MARTELLOTTI So., 9-11 overall - Season Complete 1ST RD LBF No. 1 Jordan Oliver, Oklahoma State (2:06) CNS 1 W, 2-1 dec. Frank Lomas, CS-Bakersfield CNS 2 L, 19-9 maj. dec. No. 6 Devin Carter, Virginia Tech 149 FRANK MOLINARO Sr., No. 1 seed, 33-0 overall - All-American 1ST RD W, 9-0 maj. dec. Chris Villalonga, Cornell 2ND RD W, 6-5 dec. Scott Sakaguchi, Oregon State QTRS W, 10-2 maj. dec. No. 8 Eric Grajales, Michigan SEMIS W, 5-0 dec. Justin Accordino, Hofstra FINAL W, 4-1 dec. No. 7 Dylan Ness, Minnesota 157 DYLAN ALTON Fr., No. 7 seed, 30-6 overall - All-American 1ST RD W, 12-4 maj. dec. Jake O'Hara, Columbia 2ND RD W, 2-1 dec. No. 10 Anthony Jones, Michigan State QTRS L, 3-1 (sv) No. 2 Derek St. John, Iowa CNS 4 W, 6-3 dec. Joshua Kreimier, Air Force CNS 5 W, 4-3 dec. No. 11 James Green, Nebraska CNS SEMI W, 7-5 (sv2) dec. No. 5 Ganbayar Sanjaa, American 3RD PLC W, 6-2 dec. No. 3 Jason Welch, Northwestern 165 DAVID TAYLOR So., No. 1 seed, 32-0 overall - All-American going minor surgery soon after his redshirt freshman year finished. But he still used the skepticism as moti- vation. Against Amuchastegui, Ruth at- tempted nearly a half-dozen of his trademark cradles, connecting on two for a total of four-near fall points and 3 minutes, 39 seconds of riding time. Said Ruth, now a two-time All-Amer- ican and one of only two wrestlers to score bonus points in the champi- onship round (teammate David Taylor being the other), "They fear the cross- face cradle." State to finish his college athletic ca- reer as a wrestler. "I just figured I did two years of foot- ball, so why not try two years of wrestling?" Lawson told The (New Jersey) Star-Ledger. "It was time for me to get back on the mat." Lawson, who has a redshirt available, will compete with Jon Gingirch and Nick Ruggear for the starting spot at 285 pounds. – T.O. 1ST RD WBF over Corey Lear, Bucknell (1:40) 2ND RD WBF over Brandon Wright, UT-Chattanooga (1:51) QTRS WBF over No. 8 Robert Kokesh, Nebraska (0:29) SEMIS WBF over No. 4 Bekzod Abdurakhmonov, Clarion (4:46) FINAL W, 22-7 tech. fall over No. 11 Brandon Hatchett, Lehigh (TF; 5:55) 174 ED RUTH So., No. 1 seed, 31-0 overall - All-American 1ST RD WBF over Jim Resnick, Rider (1:43) 2ND RD WBF over Dorian Henderson, Missouri (1:25) QTRS W, 11-4 dec. No. 9 Nick Heflin, Ohio State SEMIS W, 16-1 tech fall over No. 4 Logan Storley, Minnesota (TF; 6:38) FINAL W, 13-2 maj. dec. No. 3 Nick Amuchastegi, Stanford 184 QUENTIN WRIGHT Jr., No. 6 seed, 30-4 overall - All-American 1ST RD W, 11-0 maj. dec. Thomas Ferguson, North Carolina 2ND RD W, 10-2 maj. dec. No. 11 Ben Clymer, Hofstra QTRS WBF No. 3 Ben Bennett, Central Michigan (2:35) SEMIS W, 3-2 dec. No. 2 Robert Hamlin, Lehigh FINAL L, 4-2 (sv) dec. No. 4 Steve Bosak, Cornell 197 MORGAN McINTOSH Fr., 18-10 overall – Season Complete 1ST RD W, 9-3 dec. Taylor Meeks, Oregon State 2ND RD L, 22-7 tech fall No. 1 Cam Simaz, Cornell (TF; 7:00) CNS 2 L, 8-3 dec. Andrew Campolattano, Ohio State 285 CAMERON WADE Sr., No. 6 seed, 28-6 overall - Season Complete 1ST RD W, 17-2 tech fall over Quintas McCorkle, Clarion (TF; 7:00) 2ND RD W, 8-2 dec. Maciej Jochym, Cornell QTRS L, 7-0 dec. No. 3 Clayton Jack, Oregon State CNS 4 L, 7-4 dec. Nick Gwiazdowski, Binghamton W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M

• Cover