Penn State closed out the home portion of their schedule unbeaten after a 26 12 beating of Michigan St. It was another solid win for the most part the usual weights ( 133, 184, and 197) gave up the points. Not everyone from Penn State looked all that great in my opinion. Penn State has just one more dual before a small break to get ready for the Big Ten Tournament.
125: Brad Pataky looked pretty solid in his bout getting a tech fall against another weak opponent. Pataky tried to hit the cement mixer for the fall a few times but was unable to get anything out of it. Again it looked like he was trying to force it when the opponent knew it was coming. I'd hate to think that's the only way Pataky knows how to pin someone. It would have been nice to see him try something else after failing 4 or 5 times. But other than that he looked pretty solid. His next match against Sanders will be a big step up for him.
133 Pearsall will finish the Big Ten season winless baring a miracle this weekend. He got pinned by Gomez in a pretty nice cradle and didn't really show much. This week he gets Ness which will likely end in the same result.
141 Adam Lynch wrestled a decent bout and came away with a good win. He looked a bit flat on his feet to me, every takedown he gave up he was on his heels and unable to react quickly. The officiating which was pretty good most of the night was absolutely horrible in this bout, there was the blown takedown in the 2nd then Lynch clearly had backpoints in the 3rd that the ref missed. In the end it didn't matter and it was good to see Lynch wrestle his match and not let the ref get into his head. It was also pretty nice to see a Penn State wrestler actually look pretty solid from the top position. It was a big win as far as seedings go, and it was good to see Lynch leave rec hall with a win. He'll also leave Penn State unbeaten at Rec Hall as will Cyler Sanderson.
149 This was supposed to be the feature bout of the evening but it failed to live up to the hype. Molinaro looked unusually sloppy through most of the bout. Despite that he still had a commanding lead going into the 3rd period but he like Lynch started to look very flat footed. He gave up two quick takedowns to make the bout mildly interesting until countering a sloppy shot by Cheza at the end. Hopefully it was just an off night for Frank, and not a sign of things to come. Because in a weight class this loaded you won't get far wrestling that poorly.
157 Cyler Sanderson proved me wrong notching yet another pin against a terrible opponent. The match was so short there's not really much to say. The first two cradle attempts were pretty sloppy, against good opponents you likely won't get three chances to lock up the same cradle. So it'd be nice to see Sanderson slow down and take his time a little more. This weekend will provide a huge test and could be a preview of the Big Ten championship as Sanderson takes on Dustin Schlatter. It's been a long time since Sanderson has wrestled a ranked opponent so it will be good to see where he's at right now.
165 Dan Vallimont left rec hall in style picking up his 100th win as a Nittany Lion. This certainly wasn't the best I've seen Dan wrestle and I think he had the 100 wins on his mind. He looked incredibly tight through most of the match. At the beginning he came out extremely aggressive which isn't really his style and he was flying around a little too quickly for his own good. And to be fair Bounds is not a bad wrestler by any stretch. It was good to see Dan spend all of about 2 seconds on bottom hopefully that will continue in the next few weeks.
174 There's not much more you can say about Ortega, I honestly can't remember the last time he's taken a shot in match. Actually truthfully I can't remember the last time I saw him attempt a single offensive move of any kind in a match. His season started with some promise but it is quickly coming to a close and it has been a disaster.
184 Erwin didn't look particularly good in my opinion this weekend. Palmieri is decent but this is not a bout that should have come down to a riding time point. Credit Erwin for riding pretty tough for a change, he looked like a crafty senior who knew exactly what he could get away with before stalling was called. But overall this was a disappointing performance for him to leave rec hall with, and a clear step backwards from how he had been wrestling. Like Molinaro hopefully it was an off night and not a sign of things to come.
197 Dave Crowell got the start on friday night with Clay Steadman injured. According to the BTN announcers Steadman is done for the year but I haven't read or heard that anywhere else so I'm guessing it's not true. Crowell might have earned the spot anyway. He put up a pretty decent fight although it's not like he was wrestling the elite at 197. But he to me shows more potential then Steadman currently does. Crowell showed some offensive early but this was another fairly sloppy bout. No matter who starts here I think it's still likely two and done at Big Tens.
Hwt Cameron Wade wrestled a decent bout he started pretty slow but he looked solid on top and notched a couple of takedowns which was good to see. O'Donnell is the type of heavyweight that Wade would have been life and death with last year, this year he was in control of the bout for the most part from start to finish. He's clearly making some progress. But I can't really see him contending for an all american spot this year. Although heavyweight is pretty weak this year.
So that's it for the home schedule Penn State still has some work to do but they've come a long way and I think are capable of a top ten spot at nationals which looked extremely unlikely back in November.
Penn State's army of red shirts or the shadow squad as they're known around here were in action this weekend at the Edinboro Open. The talent level wasn't quite up to par with some of the other open tournaments they've competed in but it was still a good showing.
They brought home three titles David Taylor at 157, Jake Kemerer at 165 and Quentin Wright at 184. In the 184 lb final Ed Ruth lost to Wright in overtime. Ruth picked up probably the best win of any Penn State wrestler on the day beating Chris Honeycutt of Edinboro in the semifinals. Both Wright and Ruth lost to Honeycutt at the Nittany Lion Open earlier this year, Erwin ended up beating Honeycutt in the finals of the NLO.
Jared Platt competed, and as I predicted a few weeks ago he was up at heavyweight. He dominated the heavyweight field which was devoid of any big names. He weighed in at 225 so a move to 97 isn't out of the question but I'd like to see him stay at heavyweight I think he could be a monster at 225 - 230 heavyweight.
Also worth noting Nick Fischer from Penn State beat Tony Jameson who is an Ohio State redshirt and was supposed to be a big time recruit out of Ohio last year.