WRESTLING: No.1 Penn State Dominates CSU-Bakersfield 39-3

If you're not yet paying attention to the Penn State wrestling squad, get on board.  This is an awfully fun team to watch.  The ref's whistle blows to start the match, and action follows right behind.

Penn State traveled across the country to Bakersfield, CA for a meet with Cal State.  The overmatched Roadrunners fought hard, but our Lions - [emits a low whistle] - our Lions can roll.  Check out SWHA and the BSD Wrestling squad's open thread play-by-play in case you missed the action.

Takedowns

Penn State 42, CSUB 1

133 LBS

Conaway opened the first period with a takedown off a low single.  He rode Herrera hard but escaped and shot in.  Jordan stuffed it and score two off the go behind.  The second started with Herrera taking bottom.  That didn't work out for him.  Conaway tilted Herrera for 4 near fall.  Herrera escaped, shot, and Conaway scored two more.  Release, and Conaway notched his fourth takedown.  Repeat.  Jordan scored the major.

141 LBS

Jimmy shot a low single off the whistle and scored the takedown.  This, friends, is a good look for Jimmy.  When he's aggressive - particularly in the first period - he's winning.  Nickell, a past qualifier, is long and probably not the best matchup for Jimmy stylistically.  Boots, riding hard - that's something Jimmy struggled with before.  But not tonight.  Great bounce back for Gulibon, falling just shy of the major.

149 LBS

Pin, in 1:17-ish.

Zain's an animal.  Takedown off the whistle.  Figure four the waist, crank the power half, small children ask parents if "the kid on bottom is dead?"  No, son, he's not dead, just in a lot of pain and suffering.

157 LBS

Watching Jason Nolf, I was reminded of the M-60 "fire-six-round-burst" bit.  Squeeze the pig's trigger, spew lead / score points.  Repeat as necessary.

Nolf's just coolly squeezing the trigger, spitting points all over the board, taking another pull...it's pretty fun to watch.

165 LBS

If Shakur had a gas tank problem last week - and he did, right? - no one told him about it.  He came out just like last Sunday at VaTech - looking to score.  He did, from minute one thru minute seven.  Cael's "adjustment" to Shakur's cut worked out pretty well, for this Friday's match.  (We'll see how the Sunday weigh-in goes).

174 LBS - BSD Wrestler of the Meet

Another All-American falls to young Bo Nickal.  Hammond fell victim to a Nickal underhook for an early takedown.  Then Hammond tried something that looked like a standing granby, but wasn't.  Bo caught him, threw in a half, and decked Hammond in under two minutes.

184 LBS

Mouse is on fire.  He's firing shots, GOOD shots, and he's scoring.  He's riding.  He looks awfully, awfully good.  He looks like he belongs on the podium, frankly.

197 LBS

Bakersfield is about an hour from Morg's Calvary Chapel high school, but the stands were packed with a lot of friendly faces.  Morg rewarded them with a strong performance, although - go figure - Morg was the lone Penn State wrestler to allow a CSUB takedown.  Not that it mattered much, as he still scored a TD at the end to secure the major.

285 LBS

Week three of the Jan Johnson return to wrestling went about like you'd expect for a footballer-turned-grappler.  Jan got dinged for a couple of stall calls, ridden by boots, and lost 0-4 without giving up a takedown.  Jan got in deep on a single in the final minute, but couldn't convert.  But, that was seven minutes on the mat, and he looked like he still had legs.  That's progress, and we'll take it.

125 LBS

Nico batted clean up for our Lions.  This match got a little chippy.  Some extra pushing happened as the pair went out of bounds.  Returning to the center with the CSUB wrestler on bottom, Nico tried a couple of cross faces.  Makes me smile.  Lesson given, lesson (probably) learned.