Frank Molinaro and Cameron Wade will take the center circle at Rec Hall for the final time in their respective careers on Sunday, as the senior leaders of a vastly underclass Penn State club lead the No. 2 Nittany Lions into battle with in-state rival Pittsburgh at 2 p.m. Sunday.
‘I’m real excited, I want to enjoy this last process of making weight and wrestling our dual and all that kind of stuff,’ Molinaro said.
Molinaro will find himself in one final prominent dual bout when he squares off with the Panthers’ 12th-ranked 149-pounder Tyler Nauman.
The duo have wrestled four times, the last coming in both wrestlers redshirt freshman season. Molinaro and Nauman faced off in the round preceding the All-American round, and after a referee reversal on a call that would have given Nauman the victory as time expired, Molinaro scored the first points in sudden victory and went on to earn his first All-American honor.
Both Molinaro and Nauman wrestle a similar style that involves a lot of riding and mat wrestling, but that doesn’t change Molinaro’s strategy going in.
‘I kept the match too close the last time we wrestled, so I just want to try and get after him quicker this time,’ Molinaro said. ‘I just want to get out and get as much riding time as I can to give myself a little bit of a buffer.’
The Panthers come into the bout on a 10-bout winning streak dating back to the beginning of December but sport just three ranked wrestlers, including another familiar opponent to a Penn State grappler in 125-pounder Anthony Zanetta, ranked No. 15 by InterMat.
‘Zanetta and I have wrestled a lot in practice because he lives only 20 minutes to a half hour from my hometown,’ Nico Megaludis said.
Zanetta is 24-3 on the season, and they both have beaten their only common opponent, Ohio State’s Johnni DiJulius.
‘He’s real tough, but there’s nothing he does that I want to try and avoid,’ Megaludis said. ‘I just gotta go out and wrestle my match, and wrestle hard for seven minutes.’
The other marquee bout of the match will come late in the dual at 197 pounds, where Pittsburgh’s fourth-ranked Matt Wilps will square off with Morgan McIntosh in a bout that coach Cael Sanderson said is a good match for McIntosh to get back into the groove of things after taking some time off to allow his injured right knee to heal.
‘We want Morgan to get out and wrestle because it’s a good opportunity for him,’ Sanderson said. ‘It’s a great opportunity for him to go out there and get a good win.’
Pittsburgh will wrestle No. 10 Edinboro on Friday night before traveling to State College in a bout that will all but decide the Eastern Wrestling League Championship.
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