Jan. 14, 2014
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Fresh off a 34-3 win over Purdue on Sunday, the top-ranked Penn State Nittany Lion wrestling team continued to dominate the national polls. Head coach Cael Sanderson's squad once again has 10 wrestlers ranked in the latest Intermat release, with six of those ten placing in the top four. Penn State (8-0, 2-0 B1G) maintains its hold on the No. 1 spot on Intermat's Tournament Power Index (TPI).
The Nittany Lions lead the TPI with 110.5 points, three more than last week. Big Ten rival Iowa is second with 99.0 and no other team has over 90. 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.
Junior Nico Megaludis (Murrysville, Pa.) is No. 2 at 125, sporting a 17-2 overall record. Red-shirt freshman Jimmy Gulibon (Latrobe, Pa.) sits at No. 15 at 133 with a 9-8 mark while true freshman Zain Retherford (Benton, Pa.) continues on as the No. 2 man at 141 with his unblemished 18-0 record. Junior Andrew Alton (Mill Hall, Pa.) is No. 7 at 149 with a 4-0 record and brother Dylan Alton (Mill Hall, Pa.) is No. 4 at 157 with a 7-0 mark.
Senior David Taylor (St. Paris, Ohio) remains unbeaten with an 18-0 record and continues as the No. 1 man at 165 while junior Matt Brown (West Valley City, Utah) is 18-1 at 174 and ranked No. 3. Senior Ed Ruth (Harrisburg, Pa.) is 17-1 and ranked No. 2 at 184 while sophomore Morgan McIntosh (Santa Ana, Calif.) is 17-2 and ranked No. 7 at 197. Junior Jimmy Lawson (Tom's River, N.J.) rounds out Penn State's ranked line-up with a 16-2 record and a No. 12 ranking at 285.
Penn State is set for a split weekend of Big Ten duals. The Nittany Lions visit No. 19 Indiana on Friday for a 7 p.m. match-up and then host No. 14 Northwestern on Sunday at 2 p.m. in sold out Rec Hall.
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 remaining Rec Hall duals. People may purchase tickets by calling 1-800-NITTANY 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.