Through two weekends of competition, little has been revealed about the top-ranked Penn State wrestling team that hadn’t been suspected in the preseason.
The Nittany Lions improved their dual meet record to 3-0 and added a tournament title, but none of that came as a surprise. The three teams Penn State has vanquished in dual meets could only present small pockets of resistance. The same could be said of the 12-team Keystone Classic field.
The Lions started their latest weekend of wrestling with a 40-2 win over Binghamton on Nov. 17 in Vestal, N.Y. Penn State won nine of 10 bouts. For the record, when things got chippy at the end of the 184-pound bout, the Bearcats were deducted a team point.
The Nittany Lions’ next destination was Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania’s venerable Palestra for the Keystone Classic on Nov. 19. Penn State crowned seven champions and two other place winners out of its 18 entrants. Vincenzo Joseph did not compete at 165 pounds as a precautionary measure, according to Jeff Byers on the Penn State Sports Network.
Even without a scoring competitor at 165, the Nittany Lions coasted to victory as Jered Cortez (141), Zain Retherford (149), Jason Nolf (157), Mark Hall (174), Bo Nickal (184), Anthony Cassar (197) and Nick Nevills (285) all won championships. Matt McCutcheon (197) was fourth and Corey Keener (133) placed sixth.
Penn State accumulated 190.5 team points, followed by Northwestern with 156.5, Rider with 138, Drexel (118.5) and Appalachian State (96.5).
Even though the season is just two weeks old, some trends are starting to emerge:
■ Eight starters — Keener, Cortez, Retherford, Nolf, Joseph, Hall, Nickal and Nevills — remain undefeated and many of them may stay that way for some time.
■ Retherford may not lose another match in his collegiate career. He ran his win streak to 70 straight and his career record now stands at 102-3.
■ Nolf has stated many times that his goal each season is to pin every opponent. So far he’s done just that, pinning all seven opponents who have stepped on the mat against him.
■ Don’t blink during one of Nickal’s bouts, because you just might miss a pin. Of his seven wins, four have come by fall in 53 seconds or fewer — 53, 48, 38 and 26 seconds.
It may have come as a surprise to learn that Anthony Cassar had wrested the 197-pound spot from incumbent starter Matt McCutcheon.
However, Cassar confirmed his dominance over McCutcheon with a 6-5 win in Philadelphia, the third time he’s defeated the senior. And, when Cassar is on, his blast double is nearly impossible to stop.
Some have predicted that Nick Lee will eventually replace Cortez at 141. So far, Cortez hasn’t done anything to suggest he can’t handle the position. However, if the two should meet in a tournament (such as the Southern Scuffle) and Lee dominates, then the coaches would have a hard decision to make.
Some may question why Penn State would bother to wrestle at Binghamton or in the Keystone Classic with the relative depth of competition. There are many reasons.
First, Cael Sanderson and his coaching staff have always shown a willingness to help emerging programs. And, it doesn’t hurt that they have a relationship with Bearcats coach Matt Dernlan, who served as director of wrestling operations under Sanderson for three years.
Wrestling in the Keystone Classic allows Penn State to enter as many wrestlers as it did and get those wrestlers multiple matches in one day.
No team wrestles top-flight competition on every date on the calendar. Smart coaches like to layer their schedules with a variety challenges from different formats and varied opponents.
Penn State’s next dual meet figures to present its stiffest competition to date. The Nittany Lions wrestle at Lehigh on Sunday, Dec. 3, in the PPL Center in Allentown. The longtime rivals almost always deliver a spirited battle. Lehigh made a statement on Nov. 19 by thoroughly dominating No. 4 Michigan, 27-8.
