Posted on 03/10/2013 3:47:31 PM PDT by FlJoePa
Another incredible Big Ten wrestling team title race was won by another incredible final-day finish by Penn State.
Boasting four champions and 10 NCAA qualifiers, the Nittany Lions outscored a charging Minnesota team and a sagging Iowa squad to win their third straight Big Ten crown. Penn State tallied 151 points to Minnesota’s 139 and Iowa’s 130.5.
David Taylor at 165 and Ed Ruth at 184 became three-time Big Ten champs, the third and fourth Nittany Lions ever to do so. And Penn State will take all 10 wrestlers to the NCAAs for the first time in 16 years.
Penn State led Iowa by just a half-point heading into the final and led Minnesota by eight points, and each of those teams put four wrestlers in the finals. But Penn State went 4-for-4 while Iowa came up winless (for the first time since 2006) and the Gophers finished by batting .500.
"They showed a lot of resilience just battling back,'' Penn State coach Cael Sanderson said on the Big Ten Network live broadcast.
"These two days just give you a pretty good idea of how tough you are.''
Penn State got team title assistance in the first three weights as Jesse Delgado (Illinois-125), Logan Stieber (Ohio State-133) and Hunter Stieber (Ohio State-141) all beat Iowa wrestlers to prevent the Hawkeyes from climbing in the team race.
At the same time, Penn State’s Nico Megaludis of Franklin Regional High placed third at 125, and former District 3 wrestlers Jordan Conaway (New Oxford, fifth at 133) and Bryan Pearsall (Warwick, fifth at 141) also won to earn three more team points. Conaway beat Daryl Thomas of Illinois for the second time in the tournament and Pearsall scored an overtime takedown to take down Pasquale Greco of Northwestern, 4-2.
Penn State’s Alton twins followed with twin losses, Andrew getting pinned by Purdue’s Ivan Lopouchanski at 149 to place fourth and Dylan losing 6-2 to Minnesota’s Danny Zilverberg.
That win by Gopher Zilverberg put Minnesota into a tie with Penn State until PSU’s Taylor at 165 scored a takedown with 19 seconds left against Conrad Polz of Illinois to earn a bonus-point 9-1 decision.
Taylor was the first of four straight Nittany Lion finalists. Matt Brown followed with a rematch against Mike Evans of Iowa. Evans, the former Cumberland Valley and Blair Academy athlete, nipped Brown 4-3 in a wild finish in the Feb. 1 dual meet.
This time, Evans jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead when Brown hooked one of Evans’ socks with his fingers and then pulled on it and was docked a penalty point.
Brown escaped in the second period and pancaked Evans to his back for a 6-2 lead. He then went on punish Evans with a strong third-period ride and a vitally important 7-3 victory.
Against Kevin Steinhaus of Minnesota, it would be realistic to think that Ruth could be in for his toughest match of the season, perhaps short of his Southern Scuffle final against Steve Bosak of Cornell (and that wasn’t all that tough).
It was indeed. The former Susquehanna Twp. athlete got the initial takedown rather easily but Steinhaus held off all other attempts in the period and the second as well. Steinhaus escaped in the third and Ruth led just 3-2 before converting a single-leg to a double-leg for a 5-2 advantage and ultimately a 5-3 win.
Ruth did not have a riding time advantage in the match, a rather rare occurrence for the redshirt junior.
“I appreciate someone who wants to dominate a match as much as I do,’’ Ruth said on the Big Ten Network about the challenge from Steinhaus. “Those are the matches you come away from so proud of it.
“And adding to our momentum made me feel even better.’’
Quentin Wright capped that momentum with two strong double-leg takedowns against Scott Schiller of Minnesota at 197 for a 5-3 win that clinched the team title for the Nittany Lions.
“It’s a lot of pressure but everybody on the team has to do their job,’’ Wright said on the BTN broadcast about Penn State’s four finalists effectively needing to win. “But that’s all part of being a team.’’
Heavyweight Jimmy Lawson placed eighth but still qualified for the NCAAs.
CHAMPIONSHIP SUMMARY
125: Jesse Delgado, Illinois d Matt McDonough, Iowa 9-4.
133: Logan Stieber, Ohio State d Tony Ramos, Iowa 3-1 OT.
141: Hunter Steiber, Ohio State d Mark Ballweg, Iowa 8-3.
149: Dylan Ness, Minnesota pinned Jake Sueflohn, Nebraska.
157: Jason Welch, Northwestern pinned James Green, Nebraska.
165: David Taylor, Penn State md Conrad Polz, Illinois 9-1.
174: Matt Brown, Penn State d Mike Evans, Iowa 7-3.
184: Ed Ruth, Penn State d Kevin Steinhaus, Minnesota 5-3.
197: Quentin Wright, Penn State d Scott Schiller, Minnesota 5-3.
285: Tony Nelson, Minnesota d Mike McMullan, Northwestern 4-1.
bookmark. wrestling
I havn’t followed NCAA wrestling since Dan Gable stopped coaching at Iowa.
Who has won the NCAA’s in the last couple years.
Penn State has won the past two ncaa Championships and will be favored to win again in Des Moines. Certainly not a given though.
Wow - very impressive! It’s going to be a really great NCAA tournament this year. I think there are four legit contenders for the team title. The key for PSU will be to get some points in the first four weight classes. If they can do that they’ll be hard to beat.
This will be the best NCAA tournament in a long time, and there are four teams that could take it -- PSU, Iowa, Okla State and Minnysota. The seedings will be critical, and PSU did themselves a lot of good today. I'm an Okla State fan, and the only weight we won't be bringing is 141 (Feikert). He could get an at-large invitation, but even if he did, he wouldn't make it out of the first round. Go Pokes!
Agree with almost everything you said. I think Q can certainly win. Taylor/Dake could be an incredible matchup.
PSU needs fairly deep runs in the lower weights obviously. Nico needs to do what he did today - no less than 3rd, and the Altons need to get it together. They both run out of gas and lose matches late.
I just read the reminder, “Please: NO profanity, NO personal attacks, NO racism or violence in posts.” Hence, I will not write anything. I will, however, remember your name.
Oklahoma State had a four-year championship run from 2003 thru 2006. Since then, it was Minnesota in 2007, Iowa 2008-10, and Penn State in 2011-12. The upcoming championship will be the 2013 NCAA Wrestling Championship.
That said, the Altons were missing from the equation, big time, this tournament. If they perform this badly in Ames, then it will be hard for PSU to win. Conaway could surprise, but I think Pearsall goes down early. Nico could win it all, but after watching Delgado, it's clear he's peaking at the right time. I think the kid from Missouri (Waters) will be the #1 seed at 125.
Dake and Taylor will be the top match of the finals, and I hope we get to see Stieber and Ramos go at it again. The other Stieber, vs. the kid from Oklahoma, could make the 141 final just as exciting. Wish I could go Ames this year, but work is always getting in the way.
And the implied opinion behind your comment is that you're more riled about somebody beyond Pennsylvania registering moral concern about what a campus tolerated than the horrific things that happened & WERE IGNORED IN Pennsylvania!
[Kind of reminds me when people get upset at those holding up pictures of aborted babies, as if that was more problematic than the very acts and the very industry that led to the aborted pre-borns to begin with!]
Re the Altons and Lock Haven...they sat out a month for two misdemeanors. They didn’t beat anyone up (which is, historically, what PSU wrestlers - and others) usually get in trouble for.
Just drunk downtown. I love Lock Haven, but I’d probably love it more drunk. Just sayin’.
(Well, thanks for the advice...I took it up...Here's an article from today's State College newspaper where a Penn State trustee says they didn't fire JoePa, they just "retired him three weeks early.")
Wow! PSU CONTINUES to be the "laughing stock" campus admin of the nation!
For the thread, see: Penn State trustees: ‘We’re trying to get where we need to be’ [PSU alumni still on attack]
Ed Ruth would never have been allowed to plead down for assaulting a cop in the old days, and he would have been relegated to some third-rate school, or done some time, instead. We treat student athletes with kid gloves these days, and it is nothing but a disservice to them and to society. Correction, we treat the athletes who can bring national championships with kid gloves.
This is more of a sad commentary on the state of collegiate athletics than it is an indictment of PSU or Cael. Hey, at least the Alton's didn't pull an Andrew Long.
[Kind of reminds me when people get upset at those holding up pictures of aborted babies, as if that was more problematic than the very acts and the very industry that led to the aborted pre-borns to begin with!]
I really do not care where you are from. Moral concern is ok, and trust me, everyone in PA is glad Sandusky is in prison.
As for the horrific things that happened and ignored in PA, you forget or really do not care about the fact that all students at PSU, all PSU alumni, and all but a couple of administrators at PSU had an idea of what was happening with Sandusky. The administrators that knew are still to stand trial.
Since FR is a political forum, it is very interesting if you look at the political leanings of the administrators that were involved in the cover-up.
At least you didn't bring Joe Paterno into this. He was a hard-core conservative. He is also dead and unable to defend himself. (BTW, he also fired Sandusky, long, long ago, when there was no arrest, no trial, and no conviction of Sandusky.) Paterno became the scape goat for the liberals that ran PSU, ESPN, the MSN and Louis Freeh.
I think all conservatives can easily admit that all but a few colleges and universities in the US are run by liberals, and that as liberals they lack a moral compass. It is also easy to admit that the MSM and ESPN are extremely liberal, and for that matter so is Louis Freeh.
To damn residents of PA and alumni of PSU by comparing them to people who have a problem with people showing abortion pictures is either hyperbolic or ill-placed in a thread about wrestling.
I think that if you post a “Penn State” thread on anything, you are going to get Sandusky/sex scandal comments. Seems like a no-brainer to me. If you don’t want to get riled, don’t post Penn State stuff. If you do, I suggest you give your hackles a vacation, because you are sure going to get comments you don’t want.
Anybody wishing to see how I respond to this kind of comment -- which you may or may not want to address on yet another thread...please see:
See post #82
As for the horrific things that happened and ignored in PA, you forget or really do not care about the fact that all students at PSU, all PSU alumni, and all but a couple of administrators at PSU had an idea of what was happening with Sandusky
Well, if you visit that other linked thread above, you'll see plenty of posts re: how Penn State alumni have reacted in extremely negative ways.
IoW, it wasn't simply a lone individual on the loose; plenty of people HAD to look the other way with what they saw that allowed Sandusky to continue to do what he did. IoW, there's a "cultural" issue afoot there. And it's the people who don't want to address it as anything beyond the actions of a single individual who have become part of the problem that led to the cover-up to begin with.
Hence, there's been this pride-filled spirit of defiance loose in State College.
First, it was the Penn States students that one night when they began rioting in the streets. (And yet you whitewash ALL the actions of ALL the students)
And then it moved on to the CentreDaily Times writing in May 2012 that they were "sad" to see Sandusky's The Second Mile Foundation go...when the reaction of the ENTIRE community should have been, "Good riddance!"
Then, there's been ZERO grassroots uprising to the reality that Penn State continues to pay the salary of one of the cover-uppers -- the athletic director, Tim Curley. (For those who claim they are waiting for the trial to end...no they aren't...Curley's contract will end likely before the trial...and guess what? They won't renew it...furthermore, the Board of Trustees didn't wait for Paterno's contract to be up...he was fired minus any criminal charges)
And then that spirit of defiance by Penn State Alumni has been to turn on the NCAA; to turn on the Board of Trustees; there's absolutely LITTLE sensitivity to the cultural seriousness of what has occurred in State College!
Well, at least the CentreDaily Times recognizes to SOME degree how serious it is... http://www.centredaily.com/
Most newspapers have simple Home page banner navigational topical interests like:
The CentreDaily Times? How does it compare to other papers?
Well, after, News and Sports we see prominently:
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