When weather prevented the No. 2 Penn State wrestling team from competing in the Reno Tournament of Champions on Dec. 18, many wondered if the resulting 26-day layoff would hamper the Nittany Lions.
Wonder no more.
Penn State embarked on its longest, most trying road trip of the season thus far — at No. 13 Minnesota on Jan. 6 and at No. 7 Nebraska on Jan. 8 — and came away with two convincing wins.
The Nittany Lions dispatched the Golden Gophers, 33-6, and the Cornhuskers, 27-14, winning 15 of 20 individual bouts on the weekend and amassing 48 takedowns.
“It was a long layoff from competition,” assistant coach Casey Cunningham told the Penn State Sports Network after the Minnesota win.
“I know everybody’s been talking about, ‘Oh, you’ve been off for so many days.’ We haven’t been off. We’ve been training. If you think about the guys they are training with every day in the room … they were ready to do. It was a good match tonight.”
Clearly, that was the case against Nebraska as well.
Penn State won seven of 10 bouts in Lincoln and continued its streak of securing at least one pin or technical fall every time it has stepped on the mat.
Freshman 125-pounder Nick Suriano had himself a weekend, earning wins over the sixth- and fifth-ranked wrestlers in the country. He edged No. 5 Husker Tim Lambert, 3-2, but then the Nittany Lions found themselves in an unfamiliar position — behind.
Nebraska got a technical fall at 133 and a decision at 141 to open an 8-3 lead. The savvy fans among the 2,373 in the Devaney Center probably realized that lead wouldn’t last long, and it didn’t.
Penn State reeled off five consecutive wins, three by major decision, to turn the 8-3 deficit into an insurmountable 21-8 lead. Zain Retherford, Jason Nolf and Vincenzo Joseph ran off consecutive major decisions from 149 through 165. Geno Morelli and Bo Nickal followed with decisions.
Nolf’s (15-7) and Nickal’s (11-5) wins came over the No. 3 ranked opponents at their respective weights.
The teams swapped pins in the final two bouts. Nick Nevills, the Lions’ 285-pounder who has soared to No. 5 in the rankings, continued his string of impressive performances with a third-period fall.
“We like to see that. Coach Cael said before the match, ‘Make some mistakes out there. Take some risks,” Cunningham said. “Well, he took some risks and got the fall for it, so it’s good to see when those guys are listening.”
The Jan. 6 win over Minnesota was less dramatic, and it was partially the Golden Gophers’ fault. They chose to draw for the starting weight and drew a worst-case scenario — starting at 149, which meant seeing two No. 1 ranked Nittany Lions in the first two bouts.
Retherford and Nolf recorded falls to put the Gophers in a 12-0 hole from which they couldn’t climb out.
When Joseph and Morelli each added a decision and Nickal scored a first-period fall, the Nittany Lion lead was 24-0 and the Gophers couldn’t burrow out. Nevills, Suriano and Gulibon added decisions to complete the rout.
With fewer than two months until the Saturday, March 4, and Sunday, March 5, Big Ten Championships in Bloomington, Ind., Penn State’s lineup is still taking shape.
At six weights — 125, 149, 157, 165, 184 and 285 — the Nittany Lions look to have either All-America or national champion candidates.
At 197, Matt McCutcheon suffered his first two losses of the season. One was a respectable 3-2 loss to second-ranked Brett Pfarr of Minnesota. The other came to No. 7 Aaron Studebaker of Nebraska when McCutcheon got caught and pinned. McCutcheon trailed only 2-1 at the time.
So, those two losses include silver linings in that McCutcheon was within striking distance of a win against two established 197-pounders. If he continues to adjust to the weight, he could challenge for All-America status.
Morelli wrestled both matches at 174 over the weekend. It isn’t clear if that weight is his or if Shakur Rasheed is still in the mix. Either of those two could challenge for All-America status.
Backup George Carpenter filled in at 133 pounds for Jered Cortez, who is apparently still recovering from a shoulder injury according to commentary on the Penn State Sports Network. If Cortez is able to fully recover, he has shown glimpses of All-America form.
That leaves 141 and Jimmy Gulibon, an All-American in 2015. His 6-3 win over No. 9 Tommy Thorn of Minnesota on Jan. 6 was promising. However, his 12-5 loss to No. 13 Colton McCrystal two days later was another example of his inability to post consistent wins against the higher ranked guys at his weight.
Penn State returns to action at 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 13, when No. 11 Rutgers visits Rec Hall for a dual meet that will be aired live on Big Ten Network. Rutgers beat No. 12 Illinois, 19-17, Jan. 6. The Scarlet Knights had to postpone a Jan. 8 match at No. 4 Ohio State due to inclement weather. The match has been rescheduled for 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 6, at Columbus, Ohio.
