March 5, 2015
By Matt Allibone, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.- Take a look at this year's postseason lineup for the Penn State wrestling team and you'll notice a few differences from last year's.
There are seven new names, much less experience and no returning national champions. There's no denying it, plenty has changed for the Nittany Lions.
But that doesn't mean their mindset is any different than the past four years. When the Lions begin the Big Ten Tournament on Saturday in Columbus, they'll still be gunning for their fifth consecutive conference championship.
"We need all 10 guys scoring points, we need all 10 guys scoring bonus points when they have that opportunity," head coach Cael Sanderson said. "Similar to the southern scuffle, same mentality. We need to use every second of every match, we've got to win those close matches, that was the difference in the dual meets we won."
Out of the 10 wrestlers competing for Penn State this weekend, five have experience in the conference tournament. All-Americans Matt Brown (174) and Morgan McIntosh (197), along with sophomore Jimmy Gulibon (133) return from last year's squad while junior Jordan Conaway (125) and senior Jimmy Lawson (285) wrestled in 2013.
As for the newcomers, freshmen Garett Hammond (165), Matt McCutcheon (184) and Kade Moss (141) will make their postseason debuts after holding down their weights all season long. The same goes for sophomore 149-pounder Zack Beitz, who just missed out on going to the Big Tens last season when senior James English earned a spot in the lineup in the final weeks of the season.
Finally, there's senior 157-pounder Luke Frey, the most improbable addition to the team's lineup. A natural 149-pounder, Frey wrestled just three duals all season but earned the spot over freshman Cody Law and senior Dylan Alton, who's dealing with lingering shoulder injures.
"It was always my goal to be able to compete in the postseason, Frey said. "Was it going to hard, yeah, but I pushed myself and it ended up working out for me. It's different how people wrestle from 149 to 157, just getting prepared so I can push the pace."
In order to prepare, Frey has relied on the advice of Brown and assistant coach Frank Molinaro, who earned four All-American nods at Penn State and won an individual national title in 2012.
With half their roster making their tournament debuts, the Nittany Lions will need plenty of leadership from their veterans. Still, each wrestler knows that it will ultimately be on them to decide their own fate this weekend.
According to McIntosh, last season's Big Ten runner-up at 197-pounds, the team has grown accustomed to expectations that come with wrestling for such a distinguished program. At this point, even the newcomers are used to pressure-packed situations.
"The team score does matter this weekend just like in dual matches," McIntosh said. "I think we should be competing the way we wrestle in practice and just have fun. Coaches tell us all the time it's about having fun and not worrying about all the pressure to win the fifth title. We all just need to relax and wrestle hard."
In fact, the Nittany Lions only have one less wrestler with postseason experience this year than they did last year when they captured their fourth straight national title.
While that team had national champions David Taylor and Ed Ruth in the lineup, Sanderson still doesn't feel like this year's squad is at too much of a disadvantage. Like McIntosh, he believes the Lions' familiarity with hostile crowds will keep their minds at ease.
"I don't think [experience] is a big deal, I think these guys have wrestled in big tournaments," Sanderson said. "These freshmen have wrestled in front of the [second] largest crowd in a dual in the NCAA (Feb. 8 in the BJC against Iowa) and they've been in all those spots, everywhere we go there's a big crowd. I don't look at it like these guys are freshmen."
As always, the biggest key for the Nittany Lions will be qualifying as many wrestlers as possible for the NCAA Tournament. With only so many spots available and many of the nation's best wrestlers in the Big Ten, it will be a challenge for Penn State to send all 10 guys for the third-straight year.
But as Sanderson likes to say, iron sharpens iron, and the Lions can only prepare themselves by taking on the best competition possible. With the competition as tough as ever, the Blue and White will see exactly how far along they are.
"There's some benefits of being in the Big Ten, it's very competitive," Sanderson said. "The more you put on a kid, the tougher they get the more they respond. When they get to the national tournament it's like another weekend in the Big Ten."