When the lights go down and the opening whistle sounds for the 33rd meeting between Iowa and Penn State, Tom Brands and Cael Sanderson will not be the only two in the building with a prior history.
Nico Megaludis was a three-time state champion at Franklin Regional, suffering just one defeat in his entire high school career. When he wasn’t wearing the blue and gold of the Panthers, it was the blue and black of the Young Guns wrestling club, run by former four-time Iowa All-American Jody Strittmatter.
Strittmatter’s Iowa lineage and Penn State connections bring many a high-profile collegiate wrestler to the club’s home Pennsylvania base in Franklin — including Sanderson himself, and Megaludis’s Sunday opponent, Matt McDonough.
“I know a lot of people are counting me out, but I feel 100 percent that I can win,” Megaludis said of his bout with McDonough.
Strittmatter didn’t see the earlier Young Guns match that pitted the now-No. 2-ranked McDonough against eighth-ranked Megaludis, but for all intents and purposes, it was a battle fitting of two Top 10-ranked wrestlers.
“I didn’t see it, but everyone that did told me it was pretty much a brawl, and that the intensity of it was awesome,” Strittmatter said.
“I think the best way to define it is a fight; it sounded awesome,” Strittmatter added.
All involved gave McDonough the victory, and while Megaludis didn’t remember the particulars, it gives him more motivation for Sunday.
“I definitely want to wrestle him; put it that way,” Megaludis said with a small grin.
“He wrestled really tough, and from what I got from that match, I just want to beat him a lot worse,” Megaludis said.
The home atmosphere and added motivation certainly should point in Megaludis’s favor. But it will still be an uphill battle for the true freshman as McDonough sits at 19-1 on the season, and has won 11 in a row dating back to the beginning of December.
Sanderson has confidence in Megaludis, though, and believes this year’s 125-pounder has all the tools to not put Penn State down six points after the first bout, as the team was a year ago.
“I trust Nico to go out there and get the job done, and I can’t think of any other way to start the match,” Sanderson said.
The Penn State-Iowa match-up will begin at 2 p.m. Sunday in Rec Hall.
Related coverage
