Blue White Illustrated

WRESTLING HERE THEY GO AGAIN The Nittany Lions are favorites to win a stacked conference Three seasons of the Cael Sanderson era are in the books, and it���s tough to imagine his success rate continuing to increase. He���s led Penn State to two national championships and two conference titles and has coached four individual NCAA champs, and last season���s championship run was even more emphatic than the one that preceded it. So it���s strange to think that the 201213 campaign could be the most dominant of them all, but that���s how it goes. From top to bottom, this year���s squad might boast the most talented and experienced starting lineup since Sanderson arrived in Happy Valley. Six starters are ranked among the top five in the country at their respective weight classes, and five All-Americans return. While this could and should be the first undefeated dual-meet season for Sanderson at Penn State, the Big Ten is also the deepest it���s been since his arrival in 2009. ���The Big Ten is always very competitive,��� he said. ���Just thinking back, the last six national championships came from the Big Ten. Six in a row. You���ve gotta be ready for the Big Ten. There are great teams, and there are up-and-coming teams and they���re all great programs. ���We���ve gotta be at our best. Every match.��� LAST SEASON Penn State finished atop the Big Ten with a 7-1 dual-meet record ��� its only loss was to Minnesota in the league opener ��� before roaring to the conference and NCAA tournament championships. Individually, the team finished with three Big Ten and national titles and crowned six All-Americans. David Taylor (165) won the 2012 Hodge Trophy, wrestling���s equivalent of the Heisman, and Sanderson was named Big Ten Coach of the Year for the second consecutive season. FAVORITES The Lions return three national champions and have eight of their 10 starters ranked in the top 15 of their respective weight classes heading into the Big Ten season, so they are primed to contend for the Big Ten and NCAA crowns. Minnesota finished second to the Lions at last season���s NCAA tourney and will probably be their toughest chal- BIG TEN PREVIEW lenger. Iowa can never be counted out of a championship race, especially with two of its wrestlers ranked No. 1 in the country at their weight classes. DARK HORSES Ohio State has hauled in three of the conference���s best recruiting classes in recent years, and those bluechippers will comprise most of the Buckeyes��� lineup this season. They have a returning national champion and several other highly rated young guns. The Bucks jump-started the season with a victory at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational, arguably the third-best regularseason tournament of the year. Look out for Illinois, too. Ranked No. 4 in the Big Ten, the Illini finished fourth at the Big Ten tournament last season. Is 2012-13 the season they crack the conference���s top three? MOST OUTSTANDING WRESTLER CANDIDATES Juniors Taylor and Ed Ruth (184) should cruise through their respective Big Ten campaigns. Both are two-time Big Ten champions and are favored to repeat. If the past two seasons are any indication, they will probably do so in dominating fashion. Iowa���s three-time national finalist, Matt McDonough (125), has to be included on this list, too, and Ohio State���s Logan Stieber (133), a defending NCAA champ who opened the season with 12 consecutive wins and a Big Ten Wrestler of the Week citation, is already on his way to the top. And is there anyone out there who can defeat Minnesota heavyweight Tony Nelson? PENN STATE���S CHANCES You���ve gotta like them. The Lions are ranked No. 1 in the country in every major poll heading into the conference slate. The team���s blue-chip recruits ��� Nico Megaludis (125), Andrew Alton (149), Dylan Alton (157), Taylor, Ruth and Quentin Wright (197) ��� all have at least one year of postseason experience, meaning that this has the potential to be the highest-scoring campaign of the Sanderson era. But Minnesota, the No. 2 team in most polls, matches up well against Penn State, even though they don���t face each other in dual-meet competition. The conference also has to be prepared for the youth-dominated Ohio State roster and an angry squad of Hawkeyes, who absolutely are not used to being the third wheel in the Big Ten. ��� TIM OWEN D E C E M B E R ��� 1 2 , ��� 2 0 1 2 ��� 10 No. 1 Penn State fine-tunes lineup Nearly a month into the season, the Nittany Lions have once again separated themselves as the unanimous No. 1 team in the country. Penn State has only wrestled two dual meets, winning them by a combined score of 73-9. Minnesota, which was also ranked No. 1 in some preseason polls, has wrestled nine. But the Gophers fell to Oklahoma State, now the No. 2 team in the country, 22-15, on Dec. 2, and were nearly upset by Oregon State, 21-18, a week later. ��� The Lions opened Big Ten competition at Rec Hall with a 52-0 victory over Indiana Dec. 9 in front of 6,152 fans. The match lasted fewer than 87 minutes and featured six falls, and the Hoosiers managed only one takedown during the entire meet. ���When you jump out 240, it���s tough to come back from,��� head coach Cael Sanderson said. ���It���s not good for the [other team���s] morale. Our guys took advantage of it.��� ��� The battle for the 285-pound starting spot still rages. Redshirt sophomore Jon Gingrich beat the No. 8-ranked heavyweight vs. Indiana, and both he and classmate Jimmy Lawson beat the same ranked wrestler at the Nittany Lion Open on Dec. 2. Gingrich and Lawson split a pair of preseason wrestle-offs, both of which were decided by a point, and Sanderson said the team will likely settle on a full-time starter after the Southern Scuffle on Jan. 1. ��� Sanderson said he plans to redshirt Frank Martellotti, currently a junior, for the 2012-13 season. A national qualifier at 133 pounds a season ago, Martellotti has been told to stay prepared just in case an injury occurs to starter Jordan Conaway, a redshirt freshman who beat Martellotti during preseason wrestle-offs. ��� Penn State will wear commemorative singlets when Lock Haven visits Rec Hall on Dec. 15 to honor the U.S. Armed Forces. Penn State hasn���t announced specifics, but BWI is hearing one word: camouflage. ��� T.O. B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M

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