Feb. 19, 2011
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - True freshman Dylan Alton (Mill Hall, Pa.), closing out a successful red-shirt season for the Penn State Nittany Lion wrestling team, won five straight at the National Collegiate Open to win the 149-pound title. Alton won his second straight open tournament title at the event, hosted by Clarion University.
The Mill Hall, Pa., native went 5-0 with two pins and a major. He had falls in 4:39 and in :29 as well as a first round major. Alton downed Lehigh's Anthony Salupo 7-5 in the finals. With the 5-0 run, Alton ups his red-shirt season record to 17-2 with five pins and three majors.
Six other Nittany Lions competed at the event, most unattached. Freshman Cameron Kelly (Pittsford, N.Y.) won twice at 125, classmate Seth Beitz (Juniata, Pa.) won twice at 141, red-shirt freshman Andrew Church (Erie, Pa.) grabbed a win at 174 and heavyweight Jon Gingrich (Wingate, Pa.) got a victory at 285. Freshman Kyle Moran (Oxford, Pa.) competed at 141 and classmate David Church (Erie, Pa.) competed at 174.
Head coach Cael Sanderson's Nittany Lions, which closed out a 17-1-1 dual meet season (6-1-1 Big Ten) on Friday with a 30-12 win over Wisconsin, will now prep for the 2011 Big Ten Wrestling Championships on March 5-6 at Northwestern University. The two-day event is the national qualifier for the conference and begins with an 11 a.m. Eastern (10 a.m. Central) session on Saturday, March 5. The Sunday session starts at 2 p.m. Eastern (1 p.m. Central) with the finals airing live on the Big Ten Network at 4 p.m. Eastern (3 p.m. Central). The 2010-11 Penn State wrestling season is presented by the Family Clothesline. All Penn State events will once again air live on Forever Broadcasting's WRSC (1390 AM) and WSQV (92.1 FM). All radio broadcasts are streamed live at GoPSUsports.com as part of the All-Access package. The 2010-11 Penn State Wrestling season is presented by The Family Clothesline.