Wrestling Preview: No. 9 Ohio State at No. 1 Penn State

On Friday night, the No. 9 Buckeyes will take a trip northeast to take on the top-ranked Penn State Nittany Lions in a huge Big Ten dual meet.

Penn State has four top ranked wrestlers, two of whom are just redshirt freshmen, so the Nittany Lions are young, hungry, and loaded with talent.

While Penn State enters the dual undefeated, the Buckeyes match up favorably against the top team in the country and have a real shot at knocking off Penn State on their home mat.

Let’s take a look at what to expect in this huge dual meet, which will air live on BTN on Friday at 6 PM. 

Penn State Nittany Lions

12-0, 7-0 Big Ten ROSTER | SCHEDULE

6:00 PM Friday, February 5 Bryce Jordan Center State College, PA

GoPSUSports.com

Wrestling begins at 6 p.m. and the action will air live on the Big Ten Network. As always, be sure to follow me, @CurtHeinrichs, on Twitter, for a breakdown of the action as it develops.

No. 1 Penn state nittany lions

Head Coach: Cael Sanderson

Sanderson is in his seventh season at the helm of the Penn State program and has made a monumental impact on the program. In his six previous trips to the NCAA tournament with Penn State, his teams placed 9th and 6th to go along with four consecutive NCAA championships. Before coaching Penn State, Sanderson guided his alma mater Iowa State to three straight Big 12 team titles and earned a runner-up finish at the NCAA tournament in 2008. He has won every coaching award imaginable in his time as head coach. 

Prior to coaching, Sanderson’s name was synonymous with elite wrestling. He was undefeated in his four non-redshirt seasons at Iowa State and became just the second NCAA wrestler to win four individual titles. He won three Hodge Trophies (the wrestling equivalent to the Heisman Trophy), an ESPY award, and four Big 12 individual titles. Sanderson was one of very few wrestlers to be on a Wheaties box. In addition to collegiate success, Cael won an Olympic gold medal at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.

Sanderson’s achievements on the mat have allowed him to be an unparalleled recruiter, bringing the nation’s best to Penn State on a yearly basis. Older brother Cody Sanderson (Iowa State) serves as Penn State’s Associate Head Coach, while national champions Casey Cunningham (Central Michigan) and Frank Molinaro (Penn State) serve as assistant coaches. 

Ohioans on the Penn State Roster

None. Apparently, it is possible to be a great team in the Big Ten without kids from Ohio in the lineup, though it isn’t recommended.

Notable Penn State Wrestlers

If I went with my usual rationale for choosing “notable wrestlers,” this list could feature five returning All-Americans. I could also include guys that were blue chip recruits out of high school, but that wouldn’t eliminate many people from the Nittany Lion roster. Instead of either of these methods, I decided to mention guys ranked in the top 5 in their respective weight class. That trims the list down a bit, but not too terribly much. 

125: No. 4 Nico Megaludis (RS SR)
Megaludis has done just about everything you can do at the NCAA level except win a Big Ten or NCAA championship. He’s come up short against Jesse Delgado (Illinois) and Nahshon Garrett (Cornell) multiple times in his career, but Delgado graduated and Garrett is currently dominating at 133. Nico’s lone loss of the current season was an early-season 4-3 TB match to Joey Dance. Mega is a  fierce competitor and is never out of a match. He is by far the most decorated wrestler on the current Penn State team, and they will look to him to score big at the Big Ten and NCAA tournaments as they make runs at both titles.

133: No. 5 Jordan Conaway (RS SR)
Conaway worked his way through a favorable draw at the NCAA tournament last season to earn 8th place at 125 lb during Megaludis’ redshirt season. In 2013, Conaway was a win away from earning All-American status after placing 5th at the Big Ten tournament. He’s an experienced wrestler with only three losses to this point in the season, two of which came at the hands of top 5 opponents. He’s a tough wrestler in all positions and comes up big in tough situations. In addition to being a fine wrestler, Conaway puts his time into his academics as he has earned Academic All-Big Ten and NWCA National All-Academic honors.

149: No. 1 Zain Retherford (RS SO)
Retherford stormed onto the national scene as a true freshman when he handed Logan Stieber his final collegiate loss in an upset in a dual meet (Stieber avenged the loss in the Big Ten and NCAA tournaments that year). Retherford is wrestling this season like his opponent owes him money, attacking from the opening whistle until he gets his hand raised. He only has three wins this season. Nope. He only has three decision victories this season. His other 18 victories have been by major decision (4), tech fall (5), or pin (9). He has only given up a single takedown this season and looked downright lethal when he put a 15-5 major decision on former NCAA champ Jason Tsirtsis of Northwestern.

157: No. 1 Jason Nolf (RS FR)
For those that didn’t know much about Nolf prior to this season (myself included), the redshirt freshman has made sure we’re aware now. Nolf has wins over five guys in the current top 10, and three of those are by bonus points. He took the then-undefeated IMar into uncharted territory before pinning Martinez (currently ranked No. 2) and shocking the wrestling world. A week later,  Nolf tech falled Michigan’s defense-minded Brian Murphy (ranked No. 9) in their dual meet. Nolf is a high-risk, high-reward kind of guy who is willing to give up points to score points of his own.

174: No. 1 Bo Nickal (RS FR)
Nickal is yet another underclassman in the Nittany Lion to leave much of the NCAA in his wake, going 22-1 thus far in the season. His lone loss is to No. 11 Nate Jackson 7-6 after giving up a counter takedown when attempting a throw. Like Nolf, Nickal is willing to take risks in order to score points, which is a fan-friendly style. Also like Nolf, Nickal has beaten half of the current Top 10, pinning No. 4 Zac Brunson (Illinois) and No. 7 Bryce Hammond (CSU Bakersfield) in the process.

197: No. 1 Morgan McIntosh (RS SR)
McIntosh is a two-time All-American, winning last year’s Big Ten title at 197 lbs. Similar to Retherford at 149, McIntosh is undefeated with 15 of his 20 wins coming by way of bonus point victories. McIntosh was InterMat’s High School Wrestler of the Year in 2011, and hasn’t disappointed at the collegiate level. He has four wins this season over Top 10 opponents, the biggest being a decision over No. 3 Brett Pfarr of Minnesota. 

Key Matchups

Based upon rankings, each team should be favored in five matches. With that said, each match is going to be vital to the team score. Both teams have been dealing with injuries to the starting lineups, so we’re probably likely to see a chess match between Tom Ryan and Cael Sanderson based upon the team score and match outcomes. Let’s take a look at some of the matches that are some of the toss-up matches. 

125: No. 1 Nathan Tomasello vs No. 4 Nico Megaludis
This is a match that I’ve been anticipating since Tomasello started having success last season and Megaludis was taking a redshirt. The two wrestlers have opposing styles with Tomasello favoring his brute strength and endurance, while Megaludis has incredible flexibility and an equally deep gas tank. Megaludis has a tendency to initiate scrambles off of his defense and  has an arsenal of takedowns at his disposal. This match will have huge Big Ten seeding implications as the winner will likely earn the top seed, while the loser will earn the No. 3 seed and will probably face No. 2 seed Thomas Gilman (Iowa) in the semifinals.

133: No. 10 Johnni DiJulius vs No. 5 Jordan Conaway
DiJulius hasn’t exactly had the senior season that most hoped he would have, but he’s still lingering near the top 10 in a wide-open weight class (other than the top four). JDJ has a bad habit of losing matches where he doesn’t the first takedown, so he’ll need to be ready to go right off the bat. Interestingly enough, these two seniors have never wrestled in their NCAA careers. In this toss-up match, the Buckeyes will look to JDJ to score a big win.

174: No. 14 Myles Martin vs No. 1 Bo Nickal
Nickal edged Martin 4-3 in the finals of the Nittany Lion Open back in December when Martin was still taking a redshirt and Nickal was only ranked No. 6 in the country. A great deal has changed since their first meeting, and much could be at stake when they meet on Friday night. Both wrestlers are aggressive on their feet, but they had a low scoring affair when they met the first time. Martin will need to be patient and set up his attacks because Nickal doesn’t often put himself in bad positions. This has all the makings of a budding rivalry for years to come. 

Match Outlook

As previously stated, the Buckeyes stack up nicely against Penn State in a dual meet. It is unlikely that Hunter Stieber will wrestle Zain Retherford at 149, but Penn State’s Matt McCutcheon is unlikely to wrestle at 184 due to injury, so the backups will play a huge role in the team score. Only a few matches are clearly favored by one team or the other, so the toss-up matches are going to determine the winner.

Micah Jordan should be favored at 141 lbs against Jimmy Gulibon. Zain Retherford is shredding the competition at 149, so he will likely score bonus points against whichever Buckeye takes the mat to face him. Jason Nolf will be a heavy favorite at 157 for Penn State, but Bo Jordan is just as favored in his bout at 165. Morgan McIntosh is a heavy favorite at 197, but Kyle Snyder is sure to dominate Jan Johnson at heavyweight.

All of the other matches should be considered toss-ups, so the Buckeyes will need to ignore what is sure to be a rowdy crowd and take care of business on the mat. Penn State is solid from top to bottom and all of their wrestlers are comfortable in all aspects of wrestling, so the Buckeyes are up against a formidable, but beatable opponent.

Be sure to check back with Eleven Warriors for a recap of the action and any breaking news regarding the wrestling Buckeyes.