Night Knight: Penn State Wrestling Rolls Over Rutgers

Penn State racked up ample amounts of bonus points en route to a 37-6 victory at sold-out Rec Hall, despite facing a Rutgers team that scored more than their football team did against the Nittany Lions just two months prior.

It all started at 125 where New Jersey Native #3 Nick Suriano topped Brandon Paetzell 16-2, narrowly missing out on a technical fall. Following Suriano for the Lions was George Carpenter at 133, as the ranked Jered Cortez missed another match with injury. Carpenter fell to Scott DelVecchio 11-4 to make the team score 4-3 Penn State.

The most-anticipated match of the night was a rematch of last year’s Big Ten Final at 141 where now-#6 Anthony Ashnault of Rutgers physically dominated Nittany Lion now-#12 Jimmy Gulibon. This time Gulibon held his own much better, but ultimately fell to Ashnault 4-1. Top ranked Zain Retherford followed, and he did what he usually does which is a win by fall. He topped fourteenth ranked Ken Theobold with a slick pin from the bottom position. If Retherford is going to start pinning opponents from bottom as well, let’s save time at NCAA’s by cancelling the weight and giving Penn State the 30 team points they would get for a first-place and 5 pins.

No. 1 Jason Nolf made short work of Scarlet Knight John Van Brill, winning by technical fall 22-4 in an absurd 4:09. He’s good. After the intermission, newly-#4 Vincenzo Joseph worked similarly quickly, showing a higher level of aggressiveness from neutral than seen so far out of the redshirt freshman, garnering a tech fall in 4:55 over Willie Scott, bringing the team score to 20-6.

Twelfth ranked Geno Morelli got the nod once again at 174 and grinded out a 5-3 win over Phillip Bakuckas. After Scarlet Knight Nick Gravina put in a cheap shot early on to second-ranked Bo Nickal’s face, Nickal ended up getting Penn State’s second fall from the bottom position of the match at the 4:22 mark to make the score 29-6.

At 197, #11 Matt McCutcheon wrestled a steady match to beat Matthew Correnti 4-3. Finally, at 285, number five Nick Nevills got the technical fall against a very overwhelmed Randy Normandia, 24-9, bring the final score to be 37-6.

Wrestler of the Match:

Penn State’s Bo Nickal pinned his top fifteen opponent from bottom, a position where he has established himself as maybe the most dangerous wrestler in America.

Match By Match

125: #3 Nick Suriano PSU maj. dec. Brandon Paetzell RU, 16-2 / 4-0

133: Scott DelVecchio RU dec. George Carpenter PSU, 11-4 / 4-3

141: #6 Anthony Ashnault RU dec. #12 Jimmy Gulibon PSU, 4-1 / 4-6

149: #1 Zain Retherford PSU pinned #14 Ken Theobold RU, WBF (5:33) / 10-6

157: #1 Jason Nolf PSU tech fall #16 John Van Brill RU, 22-4 (TF; 4:09) / 15-6

165: #4 Vincenzo Joseph PSU tech fall Willie Scott RU, 19-3 (TF; 4:55) / 20-6

174: #14 Geno Morelli PSU dec. Phillip Bakuckas RU, 5-3 / 23-6

184: #2 Bo Nickal PSU pinned #14 Nicholas Gravina RU, WBF (4:22) / 29-6

197: #11 Matt McCutcheon PSU dec. Matthew Correnti RU, 4-3 / 32-6

285: #5 Nick Nevills PSU tech fall Randy Normandia RU, 24-9 (TF; 6:57) / 37-6

Penn State is back in action next Friday night against the hated Iowa Hawkeyes at 9PM ET.