Blue White Illustrated

third-place finish, avenging an earlier loss to the then-No. 3 wrestler in the country and wrestled his best when it mattered most. "I saw so much improvement in Dylan last year," said their father, Neil Alton. "Just taking the year off, he was excited to get back, and I think Andrew has been itching to get back on the mat and compete again – not just with his brother, but in general. Just to get in front of that crowd, get in front of the team again." They got that chance on Dec. 9 against Indiana. Andrew missed the season's first two dual meets with an ankle injury but returned to the lineup for the Big Ten opener in Rec Hall in front of more than 6,000 fans. It was the first time since enrolling at Penn State that the Alton twins competed in the same dual meet lineup. Their parents, Neil and Donna, made the trip from Mill Hall, Pa., as did two sisters and a nephew. "It means a lot," Dylan said. "It's been two years [since we last wrestled in the same lineup], so I'm excited to have him there with me, wrestling back-to-back." There are, however, some disadvantages to competing immediately after a wrestler like Andrew. Dylan calls his brother "a pinner" – a fact made evident by his 18 falls as a true freshman and his 52-second pin against Indiana's Geno Capezio. Ordinarily, Dylan would have a full seven minutes to prepare for his match, beginning with the opening 149-pound whistle. But that's not always the case with Andrew preceding him. The 149-pound bout could conclude at any moment, so Dylan must be prepared for his name to be called sooner rather than later. "I always have to be prepared before his matches because it could be quick," Dylan said. "I could be right out there, so I'm always prepared to just walk out there. At least with [last year's 149-pound national champion Frank Molinaro], I would have a little bit of time because he would [technical fall] his kids. So I have to watch [Andrew's] match, and I'm just bouncing away before it." Wrestling before your twin brother has its disadvantages, too. Especially in dual meets, Andrew rarely watches Dylan's entire match because his nerves get the best of him. "I just go out and pace back and forth in the hallway," he said, "and come out maybe toward the end." While they said their emotions tend to run high when they watch each other compete, onlookers would rarely ever notice. They appear cool, calm and collected, and if they're nervous, their body language doesn't give them away. Their head coach took notice of that quality long before he or the twins were part of the Nittany Lion program. "That's one of the things that really caught my attention when I first saw them as freshmen in a high school tournament," Sanderson recalled. "I was watching them compete, and they just seemed very poised. Although they were watching each other, they weren't showing a lot of emotion. It's fine to get into the match, but you only have so much energy. You don't want to burn it by worrying about your brother. "But you do want to support him and love him and be there for him. I thought they did a great job of managing their emotions. That will be a big deal, and I think that will be a blessing for them." Sanderson has a pretty good feel for sibling teammates. Though they aren't twins, Cael often competed on the same team as his associate head coach and oldest brother Cody Sanderson while they were growing up and moving into their wrestling careers at Iowa State. He also competed with his other older brother Cole and coached his younger brother Cyler, who followed Cael to Penn State in 2009 to wrestle. While it was their calm demeanor that first attracted Sanderson to the twins from Central Mountain High School, their willingness to compete caught his attention, too. Sure, they finished their high school careers with an identical 178 career wins and combined to claim five state titles, but it was their fire and drive away from the championship spotlight that made the biggest impression on their future coach. "They're ultra-competitive with one another, but they also have a bond that you don't see very often," Sanderson said. "They're very close, but in [the practice room] they're competing and battling, and I think they compete for everything they've done in their whole life. "So they both work very hard, and when they compete together it only increases that intensity. That's the good thing about brothers. They're not afraid to smack one another, and hug each other afterward." Their father said their eagerness to compete first became apparent when they were toddlers. They would wrestle in cribs, in beds, on couches and about everywhere else that they weren't supposed to. As they grew older, the battles became less frequent, but the intensity never diminished. "One time we were wrestling in the living room," Andrew said, "and it got a little heated. And I put him through my living room wall when my parents weren't home." A bit of spackling compound fixed the hole, and ultimately, the twins said, those living room scuffles helped turn them into the wrestlers they are today. The battling toddlers who went on to become top-five recruits and high school state champions are finally in the same college lineup, and they have the same goal in mind, a goal that Andrew described succinctly: "To be a national champion." Neil Alton is looking forward to the chase. "And I know they are, too," he said. "They have a chemistry together when they wrestle like that – back-toback."

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