NEW YORK — Cael Sanderson sat at the podium trying to put into words the emotions swirling in his head.
On March 19, Penn State had just won its fifth team title in six years at the 2016 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships in Madison Square Garden. The Nittany Lions crowned two champions in Nico Megaludis (125) and Zain Retherford (149). Those three things were great.
What ate at Sanderson were the three finals matches — Jason Nolf (157), Bo Nickal (174) and Morgan McIntosh (197) — Penn State lost.
“I’m still trying to figure that one out right now. Coaching wrestling is tough, because it’s a team game. We want to win as a team, obviously. But we have 10 individuals and as a coach my job is to help those individuals. If the individuals do well, the team does well. So it’s certainly bittersweet,” Sanderson said.
“It’s tough, it’s painful. It hurts when guys don’t reach their goals. And in the long run those young guys, it will make them a bit hungrier, they’ll have a little more urgency to improve. They’ll come back here with fire. It still stinks to lose, there’s no way around it. It really stinks to lose.”
Penn State finished with 123 points, two champions and six All-Americans. In addition to its two champions and three runners-up, Jordan Conaway (133) finished sixth.
Oklahoma State was second with 97.5 team points, two champions and six All-Americans. Ohio State failed to defend the title it won in 2015, finishing third with 86 points, two champions and four All-Americans. Virginia Tech was fourth with 82 points and six All-Americans. Iowa finished fifth with 81 points and six All-Americans, but for the first time since 2007, the Hawkeyes won’t claim one of the trophies for a top-four team finish. Iowa went 0-3 in the finals.
Megaludis, now Penn State’s ninth four-time All-American, earned his title with a complete 6-3 win over Iowa’s Thomas Gilman.
He opened his scoring late in the first period, emerging from a scramble on the edge of the mat on top for the takedown on Iowa’s Thomas Gilman.
Down 2-0, Gilman chose bottom and escaped, but Megaludis scored on a counter takedown. Gilman escaped but Megaludis led 4-2 after two and had 1:33 in riding time.
Megaludis escaped and was docked a point for stalling but had 1:28 in riding time for another point in the 6-3 win. He ended his season at 32-3 and his career with a 119-19 mark. He had 2-2-3-1 finishes.
As the clock hit 0:00, Megaludis sprinted to the corner and jumped into associate head coach Cody Sanderson’s arms for an extended hug. After going to the center of the mat and having his hand raised he raised his arms triumphantly over his head, drinking in the cheers of the Penn State fans.
After an interview with ESPN, he jumped into the stands, sprinted up the steps and accepted a hug from his mother and father, Linda and Dan Megaludis. And, before he came up the steps into the interview room, he received a smothering hug from Cael Sanderson, who said, “I’m so happy for you.”
The fifth-year senior’s opening statement said it all: “I’m the champion,” he said, smiling. “I don’t know, man, nothing else to it. I’m the champion. It’s a pretty good feeling.”
Megaludis said for a year he has had signs in his room at Penn State, bathroom at home, wrestling room at home and his car steering wheel saying he would be the 2016 NCAA champion.
“I brainwashed myself and I got it done,” he said. “It’s not even celebration. It’s just relief. I don’t know. I’m just relieved. I knew I was going to be the champion.”
Sanderson seemed especially pleased to see Megaludis finally ascend to the top of the All-America podium.
“Yeah, couldn’t be happier for Nico. He’s in the finals as a true freshman, in the finals as a sophomore, took third as a junior, redshirted. He’s a guy that we wanted to win in the worst possible way. And it was emotional. It was awesome. We’re happy for him, a kid that works extremely hard. He’s very disciplined and very consistent. Always gives his best effort. Very rare,” he said.
Retherford once again throttled Iowa’s Brandon Sorensen, this time a dominating 10-1 major decision. The Nittany Lion sophomore had two takedowns in the first period and one each in the second and third. An escape and a point for 3:03 in riding time point gave Retherford the major decision.
After having his hand raised, Retherford had a somewhat subdued celebration with Cael and Cody Sanderson. After his ESPN interview, Retherford gave his headgear to a young fan matside and then shook his hand and another little guy’s hand beside the first and then walked off to the cheers of the Penn State faithful.
“It’s starting to set in right now,” said Retherford, who finished the season 34-0 and has a 67-3 career mark. “It’s awesome. That’s all I can say about it. It was awesome.”
“What can you say about Zain. Zain is Zain,” Sanderson said. “He’s only a sophomore. But the pressure he puts on his opponents and his ability to score points. We’re glad he’s only a sophomore. We wish he was a freshman. Or just coming into school, I guess. But great leader for us. We hope everyone can follow his lead. He made a huge jump from his freshman year.”
Nolf and defending NCAA champion Isiah Martinez, of Illinois, put on another instant classic. The two traded takedowns and escapes in the first and escapes in the second and early in the third and the match was tied 4-4 with 1:43 to go.
With 15 seconds to go, however, Martinez felt Nolf leaning and hit a masterful duck under for a takedown with just 11 seconds left. Nolf escaped seconds later but couldn’t score again and Martinez repeated as champion with a 6-5 win.
Nolf finished with a 33-2 record, both losses to two-time champ Martinez.
Penn State lost its second final in a row when Nickal dropped an 11-9 decision to fellow freshman Myles Martin, of Ohio State. Nickal had defeated Martin three times earlier in the season.
Martin scored the initial takedown when Nickal tried an inside trip but Martin slipped it and emerged on top. Down 2-1, Nickal started the second on bottom, escaped and used an underhook to get into a double to take a 4-2 lead. Martin escaped to cut into the lead.
With time winding down in the second, Nickal again tried to throw Martin to use back and had him there temporarily. Martin, however, rolled through and stuck Nickal on his back off the mat for a takedown and four nearfall points and a 9-4 lead after two.
Nickal rode Martin to start the third until he had more than a minute of riding time and then cut the Buckeye loose. Nickal scored a takedown and then released Martin again, coaxing two stall points and another point for 1:08 in riding time for the 11-9 win.
Nickal finished the season with a 33-2 record.
“I think Nolf and Bo can make another huge jump. They’re very raw in some areas. But there’s that fire that they bring when they step on the mat, doesn’t come around very often. So we’re excited about that,” Sanderson said.
Penn State’s cascade of finals losses continued at 197 where J’Den Cox, of Missouri, won his second title in three years with a 4-2 win over McIntosh.
“Morgan had a great year and had a great career, three-time All-American. Obviously we were hoping he could go win that match. He ran into a tough kid. J’Den Cox is very good. And he just beat us, he beat us today. But we’re real happy for Morgan and he was excited to wrestle up on the stage I know and great career, great kid,” Sanderson said.
After a scoreless first, Cox exploded out in three seconds to start the second. McIntosh chose bottom to start the third and just could not free himself until he exploded out with Cox holding 57 seconds of riding time.
It looked like the match might go into overtime but Cox got in on a low single with fewer than 15 seconds and, despite a furious scramble to get away, Cox corralled both legs off the edge of the mat for a takedown with 10 seconds to go.
“I’ve always had trouble getting both of McIntosh’s legs together,” he said. “Like I said, he’s a tough competitor. Wrestled through position, we saw that today. I swear I had that cradle. I swear I did. But it’s exactly what I said it was going to be. He’s tough, he’s strong. He wrestles good position. Great scrambler. Great knowledge. I’m grateful to come out on top.”
McIntosh escaped but couldn’t score in the waning seconds. Cox got a riding point to set the final score.
McIntosh suffered his first loss in the final to set his season record at 32-1 and career mark at 114-19.
Three other Nittany Lions were eliminated before the March 19 sessions. Jimmy Gulibon (141) and Geno Morelli (165) each went 2-2 and were eliminated the morning before. Matt McCutcheon (184) lost his first two bouts and was knocked out the first day of the tournament, March 17.
