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time to cool down or anything," Nickal told me. "Still, everything I said is true: You go to Penn State to win titles as an individual and as a team. That's what we do. And that's what we trained for. And we have the best coaches in the country, best fa- cilities, best fans – and best wrestling, easily." It's on full display at NCAAs, and that's what makes the tournament so compelling. No two tourneys are alike, and Nickal's triumph over Martin is an illustration of their endless capacity to surprise. It was the ninth time the Big Ten rivals had met during the past three seasons. Martin won only twice in that span, with his first victory coming when the two faced off in the NCAA final in 2016, their freshman year. But each match has had its own character, just as every NCAA tour- nament unfolds in a unique and memorable way. "Every single time we've wrestled, it's been different, and that just shows how cool wrestling is. You can wrestle someone nine times, you can wrestle them 90 times or 900 times, and it's probably going to be differ- ent," Nickal said. "No two matches are alike. That's why wrestling is such a cool sport, because I get to go train every day, and every day is dif- ferent. It's not like other sports. [In] football I have to run a slant route [consistently], or in basketball I've got to shoot a thousand free throws. There's repetition in drilling and stuff like that, but even if you repeat a high-crotch [takedown] a thou- sand times, it's going to be a little different. And you're going to have to do different things to beat guys in certain situations every match." And in his latest, which now makes him a two-time champ and Hodge Trophy finalist alongside Rether- ford, Nickal pulled out his best trick yet. But in Cleveland, although his was under the brightest lights, he wasn't the only one who enter- tained. ■ TROPHY CASE His second Hodge victory raises a provocative question: Is Zain Retherford the Lions' all-time best wrestler? | Z ain Retherford was only minutes re- moved from winning his third 149- pound national championship in as many years, a victory that extended his school-record win streak to 94 matches. The reality that this was his very last match in a PSU singlet was still settling in when the question was asked. "Are you the best ever to come out of Penn State?" As humble and polite o7 the wrestling mat as he is aggressive and mean on it, Retherford was not the one to answer it. Maybe no one is. "Best at Penn State?" Retherford replied. "I've never really thought of things like that." Even if he has, it's not a simple matter. There's no quantitative assessment of wins, losses, bonus points and champi- onships that would allow one to say de- 6nitively that a particular wrestler stands above all the rest. Retherford knows that as well as anyone. As a true freshman, he competed alongside two of the university's greatest. As a senior, others are trailing close behind his feats with a year or more of eligibility remain- ing. "I had a lot of guys to look up to com- ing up through," Retherford said during his press conference at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland. "David Taylor is here watching. Ed Ruth was another guy that I looked up to, [as well as] Matt Brown. I think Penn State has had a ton of great talent, and it's just continuing." That's where things get complicated. Some of the sport's greatest individuals were enrolled at University Park long before the Nittany Lions started winning team titles with regularity. There were two-time champions, including Andy Matter (1971-72), Je7 Prescott (1991-92) and Kerry McCoy (1994, '97). McCoy won the school's 6rst Hodge Trophy 21 years ago. But since the arrival of Cael Sanderson as head coach ahead of the 2009 season, the nation's best have been parading out of the Lorenzo Wrestling Complex at an annual rate, no longer just once or twice a decade. And that pace shows no sign of slowing. Retherford's resume got even stronger on March 27 when he was awarded the Hodge Trophy for the second time in his career. The Nittany Lion senior joined Sanderson (Iowa State) and Ben Askren (Missouri) as the only two who have ever won the prestigious award in consecu- tive seasons. A native of Benton, Pa., Retherford concluded his 6nal college season with a 6-2 win over Lock Haven's Ronnie Perry in the 149-pound 6nal. At the Big Ten tournament a few weeks earlier, he broke McCoy's school record for most consec- utive wins, one of the many benchmarks posted by Retherford during his 6ve- year career. "To win the award that symbolizes dominance in college wrestling two years in a row means a lot to me," Retherford said to WIN Magazine, the publication that bestows the prize. "It's awesome." While no other Penn State wrestler has ever claimed the trophy in consecutive years, Taylor got it in 2012 and in '14, be- coming PSU's 6rst Hodge winner since McCoy. Considering that the award is regarded as college wrestling's version of the Heisman Trophy, some might say that Retherford, Taylor and McCoy are the three 6nalists for PSU's greatest ever. But even that comes up short as a true criterion. Prior to Retherford's win over Perry, Ruth was the program's only three-time NCAA champ. Even though he never won the Hodge, twice 6nishing behind Talyor and once behind Cornell's Kyle

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