Blue White Illustrated

S ensing the mistake, Penn State's Chase Berger did what any veteran in his situation would do. The junior alternate captain hurled himself in front of the shooter on the doorstep of his goaltender's crease. Berger stopped the initial attempt. He had no say in the second. Notre Dame's Jack Jenkins deposited his second effort past Nittany Lion goaltender Peyton Jones with 31 sec- onds remaining in a Big Ten semifinal game March 10 at Compton Family Ice Arena in South Bend, Ind., earning the Fighting Irish a 3-2 win and eliminat- ing Penn State from the tournament it had won last season. Jenkins was left all alone in front of the net for far too long, the result of a defensive lapse on the part of Penn State. After teammate Dylan Malmquist won a puck battle along the boards, Jenkins put the Nittany Lions' Big Ten title defense to rest. It was one of only a few mistakes that fourth-seeded Penn State made against the top-seeded Irish. The Nittany Lions were, for the most part, clean with the puck inside their defensive zone. Stopping 44 shots, Jones went save-for-save with Fight- ing Irish netminder Cale Morris, the country's best player at that position. Against such a quality opponent – one that Penn State hadn't beaten in four tries during the regular season – the misstep was enough to spell defeat. A wild first period indicated the game might be played to the tune of the Nittany Lions' fast-paced style. five opponents in a combined total of under two minutes, and his other two victories came by major decision. The ef- fort was enough to earn him Outstanding Wrestler accolades, in addition to the 197-pound championship, and put him solidly into the conversation for the start- ing position. Trying to break into a starting lineup in which more than half of the spots were fixed, Rasheed found himself in another fight. He and Cassar alternated starts in dual meets until the season finale against Buffalo. Sending Rasheed out against the Bulls' Joe Ariola was head coach Cael Sanderson's de facto acknowledgement that he had made his choice for the post- season. Rasheed provided further justifi- cation by pinning Ariola in the first period. "I think as soon as he figured out how to wrestle in the weight class, and went to the Scuffle and had the success that he had, he's really been wrestling well," Sanderson said. "He's always been ex- tremely disciplined and dedicated, but now he can just wrestle, where in the past we had him at 165 for a year or two. Even 174 was a tough cut for him last year, so I think he feels very comfortable with where he is. He wants to win as an individual but he wants to help the team be successful, too. He brings a lot of en- ergy with him and a lot of passion, and you see that when he goes out and wres- tles." Despite the hurdles he's had to over- come, Rasheed has never wavered from why he's here. Even when the battle for the starting spot was a hot topic in Janu- ary and February, he maintained the same approach. "I'm focused on a na- tional title," he said. "I'm not really fo- cused on the spot. Whatever happens, happens." He wants to win and to enjoy doing so. All the while, he wants to entertain the crowd with an exciting style. Rasheed is studying both business and theater as college majors, and a role in the starting lineup of a perennial national champi- onship contender fits his personality perfectly. "I love the spotlight," he said. "I've al- ways been like that. I want to be an actor. I like the celebrity status." And when he hits his notorious cradle for a fall – he had collected 12 pins on the year heading into nationals – and brings the crowd to its feet, he's OK with that being his trademark. When he was being recruited by the Nittany Lions, his go-for-broke style re- minded coaches and fans of Ed Ruth, who was winning his third NCAA title for Penn State at the time. Now that he's competing for that same Nittany Lion program, hitting a move that helped Ruth become one of the school's all-time greats, the comparisons have only heightened. "He gets a lot of people in cradles like Ed Ruth did," said 184-pound NCAA champ Bo Nickal. "Shakur wrestles dif- ferent than anybody I've ever wrestled. It's a different feel. It's exciting to see him go out there and do what he does. I would say if I were to draw similarities, it's Ed Ruth. He's hitting all of those cra- dles and it's pretty sweet, getting the pins." While Sanderson is reluctant to com- pare former wrestlers to their succes- sors, he knew when he signed Rasheed out of Long Island that quick falls were his forte. A recruiting visit during Rasheed's senior season underscored that point. "It was a six-hour drive," Sanderson said, "and I got there and he went out and pinned his guy in about seven sec- onds. I stayed just to see how he inter- acted with the team. I was thinking, that's 12 hours of driving for seven sec- onds of wresting. But that's just what he does. He's been a cradle master his whole life." ■ I C E H O C K E Y ND tops Lions, but tourney still beckons BY DAVID ECKERT Blue White Contributor EDITOR'S NOTE The 2018 NCAA Wrestling Championships took place after the deadline for this edition of Blue White Illustrated. There will be a full recap of the Nittany Lions' pefor- mance at nationals in next month's edition of BWI, which is set to mail on April 16.

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