Nov. 19, 2013
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State Nittany Lion wrestlers continue as the No. 1 team on Intermat's Tournament Power Index (TPI) as head coach Cael Sanderson's squad now has a wrestler ranked at all ten weights. The TPI ranks a team's potential tournament strength based on Intermat's individual rankings, not dual meet strength. The full list of national rankings is available at www.intermatwrestle.com.
Heading into this weekend's home opener on Sunday, Penn State is ranked No. 1 once again with 100.5 points while Big Ten rival Iowa is a close second with 95.5. Minnesota is third with 89.0; Oklahoma is fourth with 73.0 and Oklahoma State is fifth with 72.5. The Big Ten is well represented in the top 25 as Wisconsin (7th), Nebraska (9th), Ohio State (11th), Northwestern (13th), Illinois (14th) and Michigan (16th) are all ranked, giving the conference nine ranked teams.
Junior All-American Nico Megaludis (Murrysville, Pa.) continues to hold the No. 3 spot at 125 with a 6-1 mark while red-shirt freshman Jimmy Gulibon (Latrobe, Pa.) is No. 16 at 133 with a 4-3 mark. True freshman Zain Retherford (Benton, Pa.) debuts in the national rankings at No. 12 at 141 with a 7-0 mark. Junior Andrew Alton (Mill Hall, Pa.) is No. 8 at 149 and twin brother Dylan Alton (Mill Hall, Pa.) is No. 5 at 157. The brothers are expected to return mid-December after off-season surgeries.
Senior All-American David Taylor (St. Paris, Ohio) is No. 1 at 165 with a 7-0 mark while junior All-American Matt Brown (West Valley City, Utah) is No. 3 at 174 with an identical 7-0 mark. Senior All-American Ed Ruth (Harrisburg, Pa.) is 5-0 and ranked No. 1 at 184 while sophomore Morgan McIntosh (Santa Ana, Calif.) is No. 4 at 197 with a 7-0 record. Junior Jimmy Lawson (Tom's River, N.J.) rounds out Penn State's ten ranked grapplers, ranked No. 10 at 285 with a 6-0 mark.
Penn State is coming off a 2-0 weekend with wins over Rider (34-8) and No. 25 Lehigh (22-12) on the road. The Nittany Lions return to action next weekend for their home opener on Sunday, Nov. 24, against Lock Haven. The dual starts at 2 p.m. in Rec Hall and will be preceded by the raising of the 2013 Big Ten and NCAA title banners. The dual meet, as is every home dual for the Nittany Lions, is sold out. As of press time, less than 80 Standing Room Only tickets remain.
With the full season of Rec Hall duals sold out prior to the start of the campaign, a very limited number of standing room only tickets are available to a few of the seven Rec Hall duals. Also, there are still tickets available for Penn State's Dec. 8 dual against Pitt in the Bryce Jordan Center. People may purchase tickets by calling 1-800-NITTANY, via Ticketmaster and GoPSUsports.com or by visiting the Penn State Athletics ticket office located in the BJC. Fans are encouraged to follow Penn State wrestling via twitter at www.twitter.com/pennstateWREST and on Penn State Wrestling's Facebook page at www.facebook.com/pennstatewrestling. The 2013-14 Penn State Wrestling season is presented by The Family Clothesline.