Penn State Wrestling Goes 9-0 in Session Two of NCAA Championships

The first day of the NCAA Championships concluded with Penn State wrestling sitting in second place of the team race after a strong showing during the second session. The Nittany Lions were 7-0 in the championship bracket and won both of their consolation bouts, bringing their team total to 28.5 points.

Only Ohio State, with its 36 points, is ahead of Penn State.

Penn State’s evening began with Zain Retherford making history.

The two-time national champion pinned Maryland’s Alfred Bannister for the 52nd fall of his career, tying the program record set by Josh Moore and David Taylor. With likely three more bouts in his storied college career, Retherford is on the verge of breaking the record that has stood since Moore set it in 2004.

Retherford’s fall was his first in nearly a month, after he went pinless at the Big Ten Championships.

While Retherford was pinning Bannister, second-seeded Brandon Sorensen, who is 0-6 against him, was upset by Lock Haven’s Ronald Perry in a tough 2-1 loss. The loss keeps arguably the biggest challenger to Retherford out of the finals and is a devastating blow to Iowa, which was leading the team race after the first session.

Jason Nolf followed Retherford with a strong, yet tight, 6-1 win over Wisconsin’s Andrew Crone after opening an early 2-0 lead. At 165 pounds, 14th-seeded Brandon Ashworth of Wyoming gave up an early takedown to third-seeded Vincenzo Joseph, but fought through the remainder of the bout, narrowly losing 3-1.

Mark Hall gave Penn State some much-needed bonus points with a technical fall win over Purdue’s Dylan Lydy. Hall took an early 6-0 lead and continued to pummel Lydy with takedowns and back points throughout the bout, winning 21-6. Four near fall points to end the third period gave Hall the tech fall and Penn State the additional bonus point.

While Hall was dominating Lydy, Bo Nickal was grinding out a 10-4 decision win over Central Michigan’s Jordan Ellingwood.

At 197 pounds, Shakur Rasheed recorded his second major of the day with a 14-3 win over UNC’s Daniel Chaid, although this one came much easier than his first win of the day. Rasheed jumped out to an early 6-0 lead, rode Chaid for two minutes and 23 seconds of the three-minute first period, and punctuated his big day with a strong finish.

Nick Nevills, the No. 3 seed at 285, had the team’s closest match of the tournament thus far to squeak past 14th-seeded Michael Boykin of NC State and into the quarterfinals.

Nevills escaped early in the third period to tie the score 1-1, which it remained through the end of regulation. After a scoreless sudden victory period, the pair exchanged quick escapes in the two 30-second overtime periods. Neither wrestler scored in the second sudden victory period, but Boykin appeared to grab the upper hand after taking down Nevills to go ahead 4-3. Nevills, however, escaped to head into the final overtime period with the scored tied 4-4.

Needing to ride out Boykin for more than six seconds for the win, Nevills broke down the Wolfpack heavyweight early in the period and maintained control through the end to pull out a dramatic 5-4 win and avoid an upset.

Nevills’ win wrapped up the Nittany Lions’ undefeated second round in the championship bracket, before Corey Keener took the mat in the wrestlebacks to redeem himself after his disappointing loss by fall to Dom Forys of Pitt.

A wild first period in Keener’s bout with North Dakota State’s Cam Sykora ended with the Nittany Lion leading 9-5 after scoring four near-fall points. That lead was enough for Keener to hang on and advance. He won 9-7, as Sykora could only muster an escape and a riding time point during the final four minutes.

Nick Lee followed Keener, also with the opportunity to redeem himself. As an eight seed, he faced ninth-seeded Josh Alber of Northern Iowa, who was also upset in the first round. With the scored tied 2-2 in the second period, Lee took down Alber to take the lead, which he held onto for a 4-3 win.

Wrestling resumes at 11 a.m. Friday morning in the quarterfinals.