Jan. 29, 2016
By Ryan Hickey, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. ââ'¬" Flying under the radar is sometimes tough to do in an individual sport like wrestling. Wrestling for Penn State, it is easy to get overshadowed with so many talented wrestlers on the team.
Having four wrestlers currently ranked No. 1 in their respective weight classes can take attention away from many deserving wrestlers, including senior Nico Megaludis. While this could disappoint many athletes, the fourth-ranked wrestler at 125 pounds does not pay attention about how much people are talking about him and his success, because he focuses on what he's doing.
"I don't really care about the attention part or whatever. It doesn't matter. I know what I am going to do and I know what's going to be done. It doesn't really matter. As far as them [Nolf, Nickal] they are doing what they are supposed to do."
Early in the season, Megaludis suffered his only loss of the season, a 4-3-tiebreaker defeat to No. 3 Joey Dance of Virginia Tech. The senior says how losing that match was actually a good thing for him, as he refocused and noticed some of the flaws in his game as he was still working to get back in the everyday routine after redshirting last season. Megaludis cites how it was a completely different time earlier in the season for him and now, he feels that he's where he should be.
"It's gotten a lot better," said Megaludis. "The first quarter was a little slow and the second quarter has gone great. I'm taking my time a little bit more. I feel just like I belong out there and it's going well."
After competing at 125 for his first three seasons on campus, Megaludis redshirted last season, taking a step back from his game to work on a few things. The three-time All-American, including twice finishing as the NCAA Finalist, struggled to find his rhythm early this season. While he was still winning matches, the Murrysville, Pa., native didn't feel like he was back to his old self until just about midway through the season.
"After the Wisconsin match, I wrestled better in the dual meets," said Megaludis. "I wrestled good at the Southern Scuffle. I think it started around then. It's different being different out in a seven-minute match compared to freestyle. It's a little but different, but I feel fine."
One of the many highlights for this decorated wrestler this season was capturing the 125-crown at the Southern Scuffle. This was extra special for the senior because of his love for tournaments and the atmosphere that is associated with them.
"I absolutely love dual meets, but tournaments are fun because you get four or five matches and you have to keep on getting ready whether its every hour or five hours, so it's cool. Two day tournaments is what Big Ten's are and NCAAs is even better because it's three days, so that's pretty cool," said Megaludis.
With most matches starting at 125, Megaludis' opening bout can be viewed as the tone setter, which is an added pressure that can get in the heads of some wrestlers. For the senior, he doesn't let any extracurricular distractions affect his concentration, as he just try's to wrestle a relentless style. The Murrysville, Pa. native says he doesn't even focus on winning, instead having his goal of just wrestling to the best of his ability.
Head coach Cael Sanderson preaches an aggressive wrestling style to his team, and one of the best poster children for this mentality is Megaludis. This approach did not originate once he stepped foot at Penn State, but instead started at an early age as the senior states how he's always been a hard-nosed wrestler.
"I've always liked to score a lot of points and try and hand fight and make my opponents not like wrestling me, but obviously I have gotten better at it here no question about it," said Megaludis. "A lot of it stems back to Young Guns Wrestling Club with Jody and John Strittmatter. They definitely helped a lot and preached that style to me. My dad has had a lot of influence too, but here it's even gotten a lot better."
Currently, the 125-pounder is enjoying a 19-match win streak, knocking off four ranked wrestlers during that stretch. The biggest difference in Megaludis' game this season is his ability to finish shots, having a higher success rate compared to his first three seasons.
"I've scored 95 percent whenever I get in," said Megaludis. "I've learned some stuff to get out of a whizzer. My shot finishes have been a lot better and maybe in years past, they were at 75 or 80 percent and now they are probably 95 percent."
With March quickly approaching and the matches only getting more important as the calendar turns, Megaludis describes how he feeds off of his teammates success, which in turn fuels him to win even more.
"This is a special team," said Megaludis. "When you are out on the mat, it's for you, but you also want to copy the team too because we all have different styles, but it's all the same focus: to go out an make your opponent hate wrestling you and just putting up a lot of points."