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A capacity Rec Hall crowd watched the home-standing, top ranked - and injured - Nittany Lions down yet another tough foe with stunning ease. Three of ten starters sat out of this battle against #11 Nebraska, and you wouldn't have known it by the scoreboard.
It seems like we get this same lede every week. Nebraska is a talented and tough squad. Each of their 10 wrestlers are ranked in the top 20. There'd be no easy bonus point wins for Penn State. Blah blah blah. None of that mattered.
Down 30% of your starters? Facing a top-10 quality team? This PSU squad does not care, and they win by two touchdowns anyhow. Friday's final score: Penn State 24, Nebraska 10.
Box Score
| WT | Penn State | Result | Nebraska | Team Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 125 | #4 Megaludis | DEC 8-5 | #9 Lambert | PSU 3, NEB 0 |
| 133 | #5 Conaway | DEC 5-3 | #12 Montoya | PSU 6, NEB 0 |
| 141 | Moss | L, DEC 1-4 | #20 Abidin | PSU 6, NEB 3 |
| 149 | #1 Retherford | MAJ 12-3 | #5 Sueflohn | PSU 10, NEB 3 |
| 157 | #3 Nolf | TF 19-3 | #17 Berger | PSU 15, NEB 3 |
| 165 | Morelli | L, DEC 2-3 | #14 Wilson | PSU 15, NEB 6 |
| 174 | #1 Nickal | DEC 10-3 | #14 Barnes | PSU 18, NEB 6 |
| 184 | #13 McCutcheon | DEC 8-7 | #5 Dudley | PSU 21, NEB 6 |
| 197 | #1 McIntosh | DEC 2-1 TB1 | #16 Studebaker | PSU 24, NEB 6 |
| 285 | Phipps | L, MAJ 1-9 | #17 Jensen | PSU 24, NEB 10 |
Takedowns
Penn State 18, Nebraska 5
BSD Wrestler of the Meet
Sophomore 184lber Matt "Mighty Mouse" McCutcheon
This one had to feel great for "Mouse". He bonused Nebraska's Dudley at last season's Southern Scuffle, and at last season's Big Ten championships - and injured his knee in that bout. Then, at NCAAs, an injured Mouse lost in the "blood round" to Dudley, falling just one win shy of becoming a rare freshman All-American.
This year, Nebraska's Dudley is wrestling a lot better than last year. A lot. But so is Mouse. And even though Mouse is battling through another injury - this time, his back - he flipped last year's result, scoring three takedowns on Dudley, including the match winner in the final seconds. Congrats, Mouse. Now - heal up. That March podium is waiting for you.
Three Completely Random, Probably Useless Thoughts
1) Nebraska's Jake Sueflohn is a very good wrestler, as evidenced by his #5 national rank. He's long, funky, and can be a real challenge. Zain Retherford...my goodness. Sueflohn was physically beaten down. His coach, Mark Manning, gave him a lung timeout with a bogus challenge. And it just didn't matter. All that did was anger Zain, who meted out additional punishment on Sueflohn, and scored the major decision. Zain, friends, is scary good, and absolutely ruthless on the resilite.
2) Cael's known as a great recruiter - for good reason. But some coaching is going on in that wrestling room, too, by the way. The Husker's Tyler Berger beat Jason Nolf as the two were rising seniors. Now? Not so much. Nolf did whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted. And apparently, Nolf wanted to send a message, scoring at will, before putting the bow on his tech fall with a six point move at the end.
3) It looks like Shakur Rasheed gained some distance in the race to be our guy at 165lbs, even though he didn't wrestle this week.