Feb. 19, 2016
By Ryan Hickey, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. ââ'¬" No. 1 Penn State and No. 2 Oklahoma State will square off this Sunday to determine who is the best dual meet team in the country in the first-ever NWCA Dual Meet Championship Series.
The first dual meet series pits the top eight Big Ten teams against the eight highest ranked conference winners. The winner of Sunday's dual match will be deemed as the 2016 NWCA Dual Meet Champion, as the Nittany Lions and the Cowboys are the highest ranked teams.
For the 21st time, the Nittany Lions and Cowboys will meet on the mat. While Oklahoma State owns a 13-6-1 edge in the series, the two have split the last two meetings, with Oklahoma State winning a tight match last season 21-18. Being unsure of who head coach Cael Sanderson's squad would be wrestling until Monday, Sanderson knew that whoever the opponent was, the team had to wrestle their best they have all season.
"They are all great times whether it's Oklahoma State or North Carolina State or Missouri," said Sanderson. "They are all great teams and we have to wrestle and be at our best regardless of who it is."
Having a chance to avenge their loss from last season, Sanderson is excited for this opportunity and is also thankful to be in this position where his team has a chance to be named the best dual team in the country.
"Oklahoma State has a great team. We wrestled them the last two years and we split with them. It's a very good team," said Sanderson. "We are excited for the opportunity obviously and grateful for the opportunity. Our guys really had a great year and they earned the opportunity to wrestle in the national championship dual, so that's the first of its kind so that's exciting and something that we are looking forward too."
Having a postseason dual like this has also brought up many other discussion questions, including the one of having a Big Ten dual championship. Splitting the regular season Big Ten championship with Iowa, the talk of having a regular season championship has been thrown around. Sanderson believes wrestling should model the conference split like football does, with an east and west division and having the winner of each wrestle for the title of Big Ten dual champion.
"Obviously, we need to a legitimate Big Ten champion and I don't think anybody wants to share a championship, but it's easier said than done," said Sanderson. "We meet every year and we talk about the same things every year as the coaches in the Big Ten."
The biggest risk in doing this is just extending what is an already long season. With wrestling being a different sport than football in regards to wrestlers trying to manage their weight, Sanderson believes this idea is easier said than done.
"The season is already long enough and when you start adding more and more dates, that's kind of the issue. You don't want a championship season to be two months long either," said Sanderson. "You don't want a Big Ten championship, then the dual championship, then the other Big Ten championship, at least that's my opinion. It's easier said than done when you're just adding more and more competitions."
Another tricky situation about having the dual championship is how close the match falls to Big Tens and Nationals. It is tough to move it up earlier because then you start to eliminate non-conference matches in November and December, which is something that Sanderson does not want to give up as his teams have wrestled some of the best teams outside of the Big Ten in the country. While the goal is to win the dual meet championship this weekend, Sanderson also has his sights set on the overall goal of the program, which is to be wrestling their best at Big Tens and Nationals.
"The main goal is a Big Ten championship for us and the national championship," said Sanderson. "This week is a real tough training week for us and next week is a real tough training week for us as we are getting ready for the Big Ten's and Nationals, but we want to be at our best and we want to finish this season strong with the dual meet championship and we have an excellent team coming in that's hungry and wants the same thing we want."
Oklahoma State enters Sunday with nine potential wrestlers ranked in the top 20. The Cowboys have two grapplers ranked No. 1 in their respective weight classes, led by two-time national champion Alex Dieringer at 165 and All-American Dean Heil at 141. With the rotation of Shakur Rasheed and Geno Morelli at 165, Sanderson has a big decision to make not just for Sunday, but for the rest of the season as well.
"Dieringer is pretty good and two-time national champion, so it's a challenge for anybody that wrestles him," said Sanderson. "We are still playing with that weight class, but we are getting close, but it could be something we decide a week before the conference meet."
The biggest key for the Nittany Lions is confidence. Sanderson preaches to his team that you have to build confidence first before anything else and if you wait for confidence to come to you, you will get in trouble on the mat. If his team can go out and wrestle with confidence throughout the postseason, the sixth year coach is confident in the results that should come.
"Well if you go out and wrestle and do what you do everyday, it can build your confidence," said Sanderson. "You don't have to wait for everything to clear out and you just do what you know is right, and confidence comes. My encouragement would be just do what you know is right, do the right thing, wrestle the way you know and hustle and attitude and effort and confidence comes after that."