Feb. 25, 2014
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State Nittany Lion wrestling team, under the direction of head coach Cael Sanderson, continues to dominate the national rankings, both as a team and individually. Penn State's 43-3 win over Clarion in its dual meet finale on Sunday helped the Lions retain the No. 1 spot in Intermat's Tournament Power Index (TPI) as the regular season concludes.
Penn State leads the TPI with 103.5 points while Iowa continues on in a strong second with 93.0. No other team is above 80. 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.
Penn State's ranked individuals are as follows: Junior All-American Nico Megaludis (Murrysville, Pa.) holds the No. 2 ranking at 125 with a 23-2 record. Red-shirt freshman Jimmy Gulibon (Latrobe, Pa.) remains No. 15 at 133 and is 14-11 overall while true freshman Zain Retherford (Benton, Pa.), finished his first regular season unblemished with a 26-0 mark and is No. 2 at 141. Junior Dylan Alton (Mill Hall, Pa.) is ranked No. 7 at 157 with a 16-2 record.
Senior All-American David Taylor (St. Paris, Ohio), unbeaten with a 26-0 record, is No. 1 at 165 and junior All-American Matt Brown (West Valley City, Utah) is No. 4 at 174 with a 24-3 mark. Senior Ed Ruth (Harrisburg, Pa.) is No. 2 at 184 with a 25-1 ledger as well. Sophomore Morgan McIntosh (Santa Ana, Calif.) remains at No. 3 at 197 with a 25-2 record. Junior Jimmy Lawson (Toms River, N.J.) is No. 14 at 285 with a 16-5 mark.
The Nittany Lions ended the dual season with a superb 15-1 mark, 7-1 in Big Ten action and owners of their second Big Ten dual co-title in three years, sharing the crown with Iowa and Minnesota. The Nittany Lions await the final official NCAA RPI and Coaches rankings, due out later this week, and then trek to the 2014 Big Ten Championships on March 8-9. The two-day event, the national qualifier for the Big Ten, takes place at the University of Wisconsin's Kohl Center. Action begins at 11 a.m. Eastern (10 a.m. Central) on Saturday, March 8. Saturday and Sunday morning will be aired online via the BTDN. The BTN will broadcast only the Big Ten finals live on Sunday.
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.