Blue White Illustrated

W R E S T L I N G | SEASONS CHANGE Penn State extends its dual meet winning streak, but tournament season awaits H e tried, but Iowa head coach Tom Brands couldn't completely drown out the noise. A record crowd of nearly 16,000 packed into the Bryce Jordan Center on Feb. 10. It was the largest turnout for an indoor event in college wrestling history and the largest ever for a sporting con- test on Penn State's campus, excluding Beaver Stadium. Those fans witnessed a 28-13 dual meet win for Penn State over the rival Hawkeyes, a win that gave the Nittany Lions an outright claim to the regular-season league championship. A week earlier, Penn State had rallied to defeat Ohio State, 19-18, at Rec Hall, and the meets against the Buckeyes and Hawkeyes might have been harbingers of what's to come in the weeks ahead. Or maybe not. Both matches were close. In fact, past the halfway point of each, the Nittany Lions found themselves trailing. Against Iowa, after undefeated freshman Alex Marinelli upset returning NCAA cham- pion Vincenzo Joseph, 9-6, at 165 pounds, it appeared as though PSU wasn't going to have to wait until the postseason to find itself in a dogfight. It was happening already… until it wasn't. As Brands said afterward, "It unraveled in a hurry." In the two weight classes that followed Marinelli's decision, which handed Joseph the first loss of his sophomore season, Iowa watched as its grasp on the dual meet – and perhaps its hopes of postseason team success – dwindle away. "That crowd was relentless behind us," Brands said. "Some guy looks at me after the first pin at 174 and said it was going to be a long night. After the sec- ond one at '84, I turned around and said, 'It's not going to be a long night any- more.' " Consecutive pins from Mark Hall (174) and Bo Nickal (184) in a total of 1 minute, 50 seconds corrected momentum into the Lions' favor, as they won the final four bouts for the team victory. The final two wins came over opponents who were ranked higher than PSU's competitors. At 197, Shakur Rasheed rolled to an 11-2 major decision over Cash Wilcke, then heavyweight Nick Nevills secured a 3-2 decision to cap things off, handing Sam Stoll his second loss of the season. "We started out a little slow, but the guys kind of rallied and ended up wrestling really well at the end," head coach Cael Sanderson said. "It's a tough team. Every match is a big match. In this atmosphere it was good to see these guys step up, so we're moving forward." It's been a common theme throughout the 2017-18 season for Penn State to fall behind early only to come back strong. After the off-season transfer of top- ranked 125-pounder Nick Suriano to Rutgers, the team had to overcome initial setbacks during every match that started without a random draw. Heading into the regular-season finale against Buffalo on Feb. 18, Penn State had not won a single match at 125 during its dual-meet sea- son. With five returning national champions filling out the starting lineup from 149 to 184, the Lions had the manpower they needed to overcome the early deficits. But then, during a dual meet at Rutgers in late January, defending 157-pound champ Jason Nolf suffered a knee injury that sidelined him for the rest of the regular season. It's unlikely that Nolf will return to ac- tion for the Big Ten championships, which are set to take place at East Lans- ing, Mich., March 3-4. But it's not out of the question that he will shake hands and then forfeit his opening bout in order to maintain a qualifying spot for the NCAA tournament two weeks later in Cleve- land. "Nolf is doing well," Sanderson said in early February. "He's doing great. He wanted to be out there. You see him, he's carrying his own weight. He's on crutches but he's weight-bearing and he's ahead of schedule. He fully expects to be ready to roll here soon." Bo Pipher, a native of Colorado, substi- tuted for Nolf in the Iowa and Ohio State duals and was defeated on both occa- sions. Against the Buckeyes, the absence of Nolf almost proved costly. Almost. Ohio State led by 10 team points after the 157-pound bout, but Penn State went on a run. It won four of the next five bouts, two of which were rematches of previous NCAA championships. In those, Hall defeated Bo Jordan, 6-4, at 174, and Nickal won by major decision against Myles Martin, 10-2, in their seventh ca- reer meeting. Nickal's victory gave Penn State a lead, one that it would not relinquish thanks to its wrestlers overcoming the odds at 197 and 285. CASSAR For news and results from the Big Ten and NCAA wrestling tournaments, visit bwi.rivals.com.

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