Blue White Illustrated

W R E S T L I N G | COMING ON STRONG Shakur Rasheed muscles his way into the Nittany Lions' postseason lineup Z ain Retherford now owns Penn State's longest wrestling winning streak, having surpassed Kerry McCoy's record of 88 consecutive victo- ries in early March at the Big Ten tourna- ment. He's one of the program's all-time best competitors, but even he has trouble wrapping his brain around the physical feat he saw Shakur Rasheed perform a few years ago. When teammates are asked about Rasheed, a 197-pound national qualifier from Coram, N.Y., they offer a wide variety of descriptions: friendly, athletic, quick, unorthodox and strong. One national champion wrestler sug- gested recently that the Nittany Lion jun- ior is "probably one of the strongest kids in here." Retherford's memory of Rasheed from earlier in their career illustrates many of those qualities. When Rasheed showed up on campus in 2014 after winning two state championships at Longwood High School, he was still recovering from a postseason shoulder operation. As he met his teammates for one of the first times, at the outdoor volleyball courts on the southern side of campus, Rasheed showed what he was made of. He couldn't play in the intrasquad match with only one arm, but after a stray ball went sailing over a tall fence surround- ing the courts, he volunteered to go fetch it. "He scaled the fence with one arm," Retherford recently recalled. "That was probably the most impressive thing I've seen him do. It was impressive, one of the most athletic things I've ever seen." It was only a preview. In his four sea- sons since arriving on Penn State's cam- pus as a lanky 165-pounder, Rasheed has developed into one of the most exciting wrestlers on a roster brimming with world-class talent. But his path hasn't been without its obstacles. That chain- link fence his freshman year was just the first he had to overcome. On a team with five returning NCAA champions, Rasheed was somewhat of an afterthought at the start of the 2017- 18 season last November. When the campaign began, he was third-string at 197. But when the NCAA championships opened in Cleveland on March 15, he was one of the highest-rated wrestlers at his weight. It didn't just happen overnight. Rasheed redshirted his first season on campus as he recovered from that high school injury. Then in his first year of el- igibility he went 17-7 at 165 and competed against teammate Geno Morelli for the starting spot. As the season dragged on, the weight cut began taking a toll on Rasheed, who stands at least 6-foot-2. The coaches gave Morelli the postseason nod. "It was hell going 165," Rasheed said. "I've never been so drained in my life. I would get going in a match and it felt like I couldn't even walk. It was pretty bad." He moved up to 174 the next season, but that wasn't much better. Although he won his first five matches, claiming the title at the Keystone Classic early in the year, he suffered an injury in December that forced him out for the remainder of his sophomore season. Now as a redshirt junior, Rasheed is where he says he should be – not just in wrestling ability but also with his weight. He might be a few pounds lighter than many of his opponents at 197, but if that means he can eat a little more before matches, he is all right with that. "When I was going 165, I was done within a minute, and at 174 I was losing a lot of weight, too, and I wasn't all there," he said. "It's pretty good going up in weight and being able to go out there and dance around and have fun." For opponents, that meant that Rasheed felt well enough to compile a 20- 3 record heading into the NCAA tourna- ment, claiming bonus points in all but three of his wins. He finished as a runner- up behind Ohio State's Kollin Moore at the Big Ten tournament and entered NCAAs seeded fifth. For his workout partners in the Penn State wrestling room, it meant they had a new challenge on their hands in prac- tice. On a team whose motto is "Iron sharpens iron," it's been a welcome addi- tion. "The first time I wrestled him this year, he beat me down pretty good," said 174- pound national champ Mark Hall, who shed his redshirt last season after Rasheed was lost for the year. "Then after that, I kind of realized I've got to get my head out of my butt and wrestle him a lot smarter than what I did. He's just got a weird style. He's a little different. [It's] different wrestling him than anybody else in here." Heavyweight Nick Nevills has had sim- ilar experiences. "He's awkwardly strong," Nevills said. "He has a massive left forearm muscle RASHEED For news and results from the NCAA wrestling tournament, visit bwi.rivals.com.

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