Wrestling Wreport: Penn State new #1

Cameron Wade beats Pitt's Ryan Tomei

With Penn State's 30-7 domination of Pitt and the subsequent 36-8 dismantling of Indiana the Lions remain undefeated at 13-0. More importantly though, last week then No. 17 Lehigh came up with this season's biggest upset defeating then No. 1 Cornell 17-15.

In a season where these Penn State Nittany Lions have exceeded even the craziest of lofty expectations, this young team lead by 3 freshmen all ranked in the top 5, is now sitting on top of the rankings in first place. Granted, rankings mean even less in wrestling then they do in football but still, the blue and white Kool-Aid sippers out there weren't even predicting a season like this. It's truly remarkable how far this team has come in just two short seasons.

Let's take a quick look back at last weekend's action after the break.

Penn State 30, Pittsburgh 7

Weight	Winner		Loser		Bout Score	Team Score
125	Anthony Zanetta	PITT	Eric Caschera	PSU	14-5	0-4
133	#5 Andrew Long	PSU	Shelton Mack	PITT	17-5	4-4
141	#5 Andrew Alton	PSU	#7 Tyler Nauman	PITT	8-4	7-4
149	#5 Frank Molinaro	PSU	Dane Johnson	PITT	8-2	10-4
157	#3 David Taylor	PSU	Donnie Tasser	PITT	26-11 (TF; 7:00)	15-4
165	Jake Kemerer	PITT	Ethan Headlee	PSU	4-0	15-7
174	#2 Ed Ruth	PSU	Andy Vaughan	PITT	WBF (5:45)	21-7
184	#6 Quentin Wright	PSU	Max Thomusseit	PITT	12-7	24-7
197	Nick Ruggear	PSU	Phil Sorentino	PITT	4-2	27-7
285	#6 Cameron Wade	PSU	#3 Ryan Tomei	PITT	3-2	30-7

Penn State 36, Indiana 8

Weight	Winner		Loser		Bout Score	Team Score
125	Justin Brooks	IU	Eric Caschera	PSU	5-1	0-3
133	#5 Andrew Long	PSU	Matt Ortega	IU	20-6	4-3
141	#5 Andrew Alton	PSU	Mitchell Richey	IU	WBF (2:45)	10-3
149	#5 Frank Molinaro	PSU	#15 Kurt Kinser	IU	10-3	13-3
157	#3 David Taylor	PSU	#5 Paul Young	IU	14-3	17-3
165	Jake Kemerer	PSU	Ryan LeBlanc	IU	14-3	21-3
174	#2 Ed Ruth	PSU	Nick Avery	IU	WBF (4:49)	27-3
184	#6 Quentin Wright	PSU	Eric Cameron	IU	WBF (3:30)	33-3
197	#6 Matt Powless	IU	Nick Ruggear	PSU	19-4 (TF; 5:13)	33-8
285	#6 Cameron Wade	PSU	#14 Ricky Alcala	IU	6-0	36-8

Thoughts
Andrew Alton had a great weekend, beating 7th ranked Tyler Nauman of Pitt 8-4, and pinning unranked Mitchell Richey of Indiana. Alton wasn't his normal aggressive self coming out of the gate against Nauman but that's just me picking nits. Frank Molinaro destroyed 15th ranked Kurt Kinser... again, which is getting to be a broken record anymore. David Taylor faced No. 5 Paul Young of Indiana for the second time and soundly beat him by major decision. Taylor continues to wrestle on a national championship level. Speaking of which... two more duals, two more pins for Ed Ruth. *Yawn*

Andrew Long is adjusting nicely to the Penn State lineup and Sanderson's system and Quentin Wright is getting back to his old form. But the player of the week has to go to Penn State Heavyweight Cameron Wade. Wade took on the 3rd-ranked and 14-th ranked wrestler and came away 2-0. Wade beat Pitt's Ryan Tomei by a hard fought 3-2 score and then continued his hot hand, shutting out Ricky Alcala of Indiana 6-0. For his efforts Wade was named the Big Ten Wrestler of the week.

Next Up

Penn State welcomes hated Big Ten rival Iowa for a White Out this Sunday January 30th. If you don't have a ticket shame on you twice because it's totally sold out (although there are still some student tickets left).