Blue White Illustrated

N ick Suriano, the former Penn State 125-pounder who decided to transfer this past summer, enrolled at Rutgers in early September. A na- tive of Paramus, N.J., Suriano is eli- gible to compete for the Scarlet Knights immedi- ately. He has three seasons of eligibil- ity remaining. "This is my home," he told re- porters at a gather- ing to announce his arrival. "These are my people. I trust everyone on the support staff here, my coaches, my partners. I have everything I need right here." Suriano declined to go into specifics about why he left PSU, say- ing only, "I wasn't happy there. I found through a tragic time with my injury and the way my season ended, I wasn't happy with how things were dealt with." Suriano started his true freshman year by winning 15 of his first 16 matches before injuring his ankle/foot in a postseason dual meet against Oklahoma State. He did not compete in the Big Ten or NCAA tournaments. Former Penn State champs headline MMA event Former Penn State national champi- ons Phil Davis and Ed Ruth are pursu- ing careers in mixed martial arts. On Nov. 3, they will return to their alma mater on the main card of Bellator 186. Set to take place at the Bryce Jordan Center, it's the first professional event of its kind in State College. A PSU national champion in 2008, Davis previously held the belt in Bel- lator's light heavyweight division (205 pounds) after a five-year stint in the UFC. He now holds a career record of 17-4. His opponent for Bel- lator 186 had not been announced as of mid-September. Ruth, who won three NCAA titles from 2012-2014, is 3-0 in Bellator, with all three victories coming by way of knockout in the middleweight class (185). This will be the first main card fight of Ruth's young career. His opponent will be announced at a later date. Nittany Lions to face Lehigh at PPL Center in Allentown Penn State had yet to release its 2017-18 schedule as of mid-Septem- ber, but one unique event was al- ready making headlines. The Lions will face Lehigh on Dec. 3 at the PPL Center in Allentown, Pa. It will be the first college wrestling match in the new 8,500-seat arena. A few other dual meets had been announced by opponents as of this writing. It appears that the Nittany Lions will play host to Bucknell on Nov. 10, will visit Binghamton on Nov. 17 and will welcome Buffalo on Feb. 18. In addition, Minnesota will travel to Penn State on Jan. 26, while Iowa will be there the weekend of Feb. 9-11. ■ Suriano completes transfer, will wrestle for Rutgers this year | SURIANO cially when the Lions were coming off of an overtime game. To prevent that from happening again, he challenged himself in the off-season, and he said he feels better than ever heading into preseason prac- tice. "I can definitely say I'm stronger. We've done a lot of core work, so my core has improved drastically and my conditioning has also improved," he said. "I can just run for days because we've been up here run- ning around campus, running up and down the gym. So my conditioning is a lot better than last year." Carr and his teammates were given an opportunity to put those assertions to the test in the Bahamas. Against the New Providence Basketball Association All-Stars, a team made up of grown men with strength, talent and no lack of aggression, the Nittany Lions pulled out a 109-105 double-overtime exhibition win in Nassau. It was a virtual street fight with the basketball as a prop, but the Nittany Lions battled back from a 13-point fourth-quarter deficit to even- tually win on Carr's 3-pointer with sec- onds left in the second overtime period. The shot bumped Carr to a game-high 26 points, but the stats were less impor- tant than the experience of playing a tough opponent in an unfamiliar environ- ment. Said Carr, "There's a whole lot of ups and downs, and that game at the Ba- hamas just forced us to come together as a team. We'll be on the road and in a lot of tough games this season, so the more that we can just bond as a team and come to- gether, the better." With his sophomore season fast ap- proaching, Carr is determined to trans- late last year's struggles and the team's off-season grind into immediate suc- cess. "It definitely feels different coming into this year than it did last year," he said. "It's just a much better vibe from the team. We have some different captains and we just kind of go about things differently this year. We all know what we have to do going forward and we just try to attack it with a business mindset. So things are definitely different and we're just looking forward to the season." ■ W R E S T L I N G

• Cover