Wrestling Update - Actual Update Edition

As previously noted in the Non-Update, it'll be Action City this weekend as PSU hosts the appropriately named Penn State Open. As an Open Tourney, we'll be seeing both the present and future of PSU wrestling, as both the Official Team and our Shadow Studs will be a-grapplin' - often against each other. I'll split this up into 2 areas: what we're going into battle with this year, and what's down the road a piece. (I threw in a little country corn-pone lingo there in case TP decides to peek in so he can continue to justify his tOSU decision).

Let's begin.

Official Team

     Penn State opened the season ranked #15, promptly dropped its opener to #17 Lehigh by a score of 23-14, and was unimpressive doing it. PSU was dropped to #19 in the next week's poll.

     Cael's Kids bounced back by beating Bloomsburg 23-15, then headed to New York for the 4-team Sprawl and Brawl Duals. (A 'duals tourney' is a round robin-style team vs team event). After a somewhat lackluster 18-17 defeat of Rutgers, the guys seemed to kick it into gear by thrashing Hah-vud (a better program than you might think) 36-6, and feasting on #15 Edinboro 22-9. Now 4-1, PSU is back to its #15 ranking.

     At this point, Penn State is not a strong dual meet team on the national level, and they're not going to be. Five of the 10 weight classes have pretty serious holes, where not only are wins not particularly likely, but giving up bonus points are a distinct possibility. Bonus points are awarded when a wrestler wins by either major decision, technical fall or pin. To be a dominant dual meet team, you want everyone in your lineup to be ranked in the top 20 in their weight class, and a large majority of those to be in the top ten. As of now, PSU has 5 ranked wrestlers, of which 4 are in the top ten. They are (by weight, name, class, record and rank):

125     Brad Pataky             Jr      5-0     #6     (Very tough kid who is gonna get even better)

149     Frank Molinaro       So     5-0     #6     (A brute. Coulda/ shoulda been redshirted as a frosh)

157    Cyler Sanderson    Sr      4-1     #4     (Cael's bro, obviously. Only loss to guy ranked #3)

165    Dan Vallimont         Sr      4-1     #9     (Not flashy, but very, very solid guy)

285   Cameron Wade      So      3-2    #11   (Very stable this year, and young - gonna be a force the next 2 years)

That's it. The weight classes at 133, 141, 174, 184 and 197 are unsettled. Senior David Erwin had pretty high expectations for this year at 174, but never seemed to get untracked. He's looked better since moving up to 184. He'll probably get his share of wins, and won't be giving up easy points. The other weights could be troublesome.

The better news is that this could be a pretty good tournament team, where individuals basically wrestle for themselves, but accumulate team points with wins, and bonus team points for mat-wiping guys. Two years ago Penn State finished 3rd in the NCAA tourney on the strength of only 4 place winners. Phil Davis won the NC, while Dan Vallimont (above) took 3rd, Mark McKnight wrestled the tourney of his life to take 4th, and current Shadow Stud Bubba Jenkins lost in the finals for runnerup honors. That team was not a dual meet monster either. If all the above listed guys continue to improve and can have a good tournament run, Penn State could conceiveably have a top 5 finish.  

Because Sanderson is redshirting the entire freshman class and has relegated two of his best returners (senior All-American Bubba Jenkins and soph All-American Quentin Wright) to Shadow Stud status, he's pretty much doing the 'Line-up Juggle' to put his most competitive team on the mat. 

Tomorrow I'll post an updated look at our Shadow Studs, and what they've been up to since the last  shadow-team review

The future looks sweeeeet indeed.