Penn State Wrestling Clinches the National Title

The lead came largely because the Lions went 5-0 during Friday night’s semifinals and also received help from all eight wrestlers who competed.

Junior Matt McCutcheon, the No. 5 seed at 197, battled No. 12 Frank Mattiace of Penn in the second round. “It’s a good time to be alive right now”, Sanderson said. A big day tomorrow, obviously.

Penn State’s Katie O’Donnell and sophomore Madison Carter each scored four goals apiece Saturday to lead the No. 8 Nittany Lions past Rutgers, 18-7, in their Big Ten opener. Every match gets bigger.

On the mat after Penn State was awarded the team trophy, coach Cael Sanderson answered a question from the ESPN reporter about keeping wrestling fun for his athletes.

“It’s going to get more hard (Friday)”. Snyder is undoubtedly the best wrestler in the country – and one of the best in the world regardless of weight – but the fact that he wrestled just a dozen times domestically might hurt him. In the quarterfinals he rolled up a 19-2 technical fall in 5:14 over Alex Kocer of South Dakota State. “They wrestled fantastic. They did it”.

It took a team effort, as seven of the eight Nittany Lion wrestlers went 2-0 on the day to advance to the quarterfinals of their respective brackets. No. 5 Brandon Sorensen (Iowa) No. 3 Bo Jordan (OSU) vs.

Hall made a statement in second match of the day, picking up a 16-0 tech fall victory over Navy’s Jadaen Bernstein in just 2:20. Nevills had a pair of decisions.

Snyder wrestled just 12 matches for the Buckeyes this season as he juggled his collegiate and worldwide duties. So those guys are definitely some of the toughest guys to get to wrestle. He did a nice job transitioning from turn to tilt. I think he’s been dealing with a lot of stress of being the returning champ. He had advanced to that round with a 3-0 decision and fall in 6:08.

“I think it was just more of a mindset going into the match”, said Joseph. Injuries aren’t a factor. “I want someone to come through and do unimaginable things and things which I could only dream of or I couldn’t even dream of, and I want to watch that”.

Senior Jimmy Gulibon was the lone member on Penn State not to reach the quarterfinals.

Bucknell’s last hope for All-American, No. 15 seed Victor Smith fell one win short, losing 11-3 in the All-American round to Princeton’s Matthew Kolodzik.

McCutcheon said the team is drawing some motivation from Suriano’s absence, trying to make up for his lost points.

Penn State (11-13) continues the tournament Sunday, when it will play both teams once more.

“There are some good teams ahead of us and we only have six guys, but we’re still battling”. He added to that on Saturday by taking Martinez down to his back after a fabulous, furious flurry of power during which Joseph switched from a double overhook to that inside trip and down went Martinez.