No. 4 Penn State Wrestling Rolls Over Army 45-0

Minus his redshirt year in 2014-2015, Penn State wrestling fans were spoiled with a leadoff man like Nico Megaludis manning the 125 lb weight class. The four-time top three finisher and defending national champion is gone, but it appears that Penn State has found a new stud to lead things off in New Jersey native Nick Suriano. The highly touted true freshman set the pace for the duel with a 15-4 win over Black Knight Trey Chalifoux. Jered Cortez's Nittany lion debut went much the same way as heat beat Austin Harry 14-1 to give the Lions an 8-0 lead in the duel.

That set up what was supposed to be the best match of the duel, as Jimmy Gulibon went out to face Pennsylvania native and #17 ranked Logan Everett, who was coming off a win over top-five ranked Joey Ward of UNC last weekend. The oft-maligned Gulibon got his season off to a great start, as he excelled in all three positions to post a 17-6 major decision. Zain Retherford and Jason Nolf wrestled like Zain Retherford and Jason Nolf, and earned a technical fall and first-period fall, respectively.

After intermission we saw the anticipated debut of Cenzo Joseph. Joseph used several pretty high crotch shots and turned them into takedowns en route to a 21-6 technical fall over Andrew Mendel. Geno Morelli got the call tonight at the 174 lb weight class, and used his opportunity wisely, picking up a hard-fought 6-4 win over Ben Harvey.  Bo Nickal moved up to 184 this season, and did not want to spend much time there, as he won by fall in 1:03 to put Penn State up 37-0. Also moving up is Matt McCutcheon. He had maybe the most impressive win of the night, beating #11 Rocco Caywood 4-2.  Healthy Nick Nevills looked the part, coming away with a 17-2 technical fall in just 4:31 over David Farr, making the final score Penn State 45 Army 0. Penn State had an impressive 36-3 takedown edge in the match, though one of those three surprisingly came against Jason Nolf.

BSD Wrestler of the Match: Jimmy Gulibon

Gulibon came into Penn State as a rare four-time state champion in Pennsylvania and while he is an all-american, has not lived up to his ultimate national championship potential. Demolitions of quality wrestlers like the one he had against Everett tonight can go a long way in building Gulibon's confidence. He will see Stanford stud Joey Mckenna on Sunday.

Penn State returns to Rec Hall next Sunday November 13 at 2 PM.

Results:

125: #12 Nick Suriano maj dec. Trey Chalifoux AWP, 15-4 4-0

133: #9 Jered Cortez maj. dec. Austin Harry AWP, 14-1 8-0

141: #12 Jimmy Gulibon maj dec. #17 Logan Everett AWP 17-6, 12-0

149: #1 Zain Retherford PSU Tech Fall Matt Kelly AWP, 21-3 (TF; 6:31) 17-0

157 #1 Jason Nolf PSU pinned #14 Russ Parson AWP (WBF; 2:19) 23-0

165; Vincenzo Joseph PSU tech fall Andrew Mendel AWP, 21-6 (TF; 5:36) 28-0

174: Geno Morelli PSU dec Ben Harvye AWP, 6-4 31-0

184: #3 Bo Nickal PSU pinned Samson Imonode AWP (WBF; 1:03) 37-0

197: #16 Matt McCutcheon PSU dec #11 Rocco Caywood AWP, 4-2 40-0

285: #14 Nick Nevills PSU tech fall David Farr AWP, 17-2 (TF;4:31) 45-0.