Jan. 19, 2015
By Matt Allibone, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The past four seasons, the back half of the Penn State wrestling team's lineup has always been considered a murderer's row of talent.
While there are some new faces in those spots this year, the production level hasn't dropped off much. Against Purdue on Sunday, that became apparent quickly.
Going into halftime down 9-6 to the Boilermakers, the Nittany Lions got a huge boost their upper weight wrestlers, who won five-straight matches to clinch a 26-9 victory.
Sparking the comeback were two wrestlers with very different experience levels, freshman Garett Hammond and senior and two-time All-American Matt Brown.
"Obviously, we needed a little more fire," head coach Cael Sanderson said. "So these guys [Brown and Hammond] came out and got things turned around a little bit for us. Again, Purdue wrestled hard."
After no wrestler managed to score 10 or more points in the first five bouts of the afternoon, Hammond changed the tempo with a high-scoring 16-11 win over Pat Robinson and Brown followed it up with a pin over Chad Welch, which turned the three-point deficit into a 15-9 lead.
In the 165-pound match, Hammond held off Robinson in an exciting bout that featured a combined six takedowns, three reversals and a near fall.
Despite falling behind 2-0 in the opening minute of the first period, the freshman battled back with a quick escape and takedown, then added a reversal and near fall for an 8-4 lead at the end of one. He would later score another takedown and reversal in what was the highest scoring bout of the afternoon.
The win capped an impressive weekend for the Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, native, who earned a 13-4 major decision on Friday against Nick Visicaro of Rutgers.
"I wanted to wrestle well, and there's 10 guys so just trying to do my part and wrestle hard," Hammond said. "We wrestled a lot, we had two matches last weekend and two matches this weekend so I was a little sore and a little tired but there's a lot of guys and lot of fans that support you so you just want to go out there and I just wanted to wrestle hard and score as many times as I could."
Now 18-7 on the year and 4-4 in dual meets, Hammond has made steady improvements during his first year in the starting lineup.
Still, Hammond knows there is plenty of work for him to do. While his shot taking and offensive moves were on point Sunday, he is determined to improve his defense so he can limit the number of takedowns against him.
"There was a lot of points scored [today] and I wanted to keep wrestling, but there's a lot of things I need to work on, Hammond said. "I feel like effort-wise I was doing okay, but just cleaning up and making a little more focus on top. It's good when I'm getting reversals, but when I'm getting reversed it's not good."
Brown on the other hand, wasted little time securing his victory. The Penn State captain brought Welch to the mat for a quick 2-0 lead and immediately went to work securing the fall, which he completed just 1:21 into the first period.
It was the seventh pin of the season for Brown, who has now scored 40 dual points for the Nittany Lions this season while giving up just three.
Brown, who will be looking to secure his third All-American honor and first individual national title in March, knows his responsibility as the team's most seasoned veteran. With the score tied 9-9 when he took the mat, the 174-pounder gave his team the boost of energy it needed.
"Yeah I definitely would say there is a little bit of urgency," Brown said. "Not pressure, but urgency. I was trying to ride hard on top, trying to score near fall, and then [the pin] kind of fell into my lap. I was riding him tough and I was able to see that."
From that point, Matt McCutcheon, Morgan McIntosh and Jimmy Lawson took care of their matches at 184, 197 and 285, respectively. In a match that was tightly contested through five bouts, it was a much-welcomed finish.
"I thought [Brown's win] was big, you heard the crowd, it was huge," Sanderson said. "You gotta love Rec Hall, it's an amazing place to compete and you don't have to do much to get people fired up. You know, you really just have to score some points, go get a pin. Really, it's a competitor's dream, it doesn't get any better than that and Matt took advantage of that."