We have reached the final day of the NCAA wrestling championships. Anyone wrestling at this point is guaranteed to be an All American.
There are three Nittany Lions that fit that description. Frank Molinaro and Cyler Sanderson wrestle in the consolation semifinals which start in about 2 minutes. They can finish no lower than 6th.
Frank will be wrestling Kyle Ruschell who he is 1 - 1 against. Cyler will be taking on unseeded Justin Lister from Binghamton.
Dan Vallimont will be in the finals tonight against Andrew Howe. The finals can be seen live at 7:30 on ESPN.
In terms of the team race Penn State is currently in 9th place 3 points ahead of Missouri. Iowa has locked up the team title with a staggering 5 guys in the finals.
Of the Nittany Lions eliminated all had pretty good tournaments but some bad luck.
Cameron Wade picked up two wins including an upset of Tomei from Pittsburgh which is a decent tournament for a guy who looked like he might go 0 -2.
Dave Erwin lost to finalist Max Askren in the 2nd round, and was eliminated by former National Champion Mike Pucillo in the round of 12. That's two really tough matches before reaching All American status.
No one had worse luck than Brad Pataky, he beat the 8th and 9th seeds in the 1st two rounds and then lost to top seed Angel Escobedo. In his first consolation match he lost to 2nd seed and returning national champ Troy Nickerson. It almost seems unfair especially when Nikko Triggas reached All American status and Pataky has hammered him twice this year. But that's the way it goes in the NCAAs. A lot depends on just managing to get a good draw. Pataky will have one final season to try and reach All American honors, after having been eliminated in the round of 12 the last two years.
I'll be posting updates throughout the day in the comments of this thread.