UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The top-ranked Penn State wrestling team celebrated senior day with a 47-3 thrashing of the Buffalo Bulls. Five straight Nittany Lions recorded pins in the victory, which capped off Penn State's blowout win.
Jason Nolf, who in his first Rec Hall dual walked off with a pin, ended his final Rec Hall dual the same way, but he isn't finished yet.
"I just try to wrestle my best every match and the best I can do for my team is get the pin," Nolf said. "I've still got some matches to go, so the circle hasn't closed quite yet."
Nolf recorded his 58th pin, the all-time Penn State record.
"I think it's just been a blessing to be a part of this program and to have these people surrounding us and to have the best fans in the country," Nolf said. "I definitely feel a lot of energy going out and wrestling and I feel grateful to be here.
"When I was being recruited, I never thought I'd come to Penn State and Coach Cael kept on me. It's not something I really expected, but I'm definitely blessed to have had Coach Cael in my life and all my other coaches and teammates."
Nolf learned about being a spark after wrestling behind another Penn State great the past three seasons, Zain Retherford.
I know speaking from experience, last year after Zain Retherford would get a pin pretty much every match it would spark some energy so to have that kind of effect is part of wrestling," Nolf said. "There's momentum and you feed off each other, and I think it's definitely a real thing."
Following three Penn State pins, Shakur Rasheed took to the mat after missing the last three duals. The senior got a quick takedown less than 30 seconds into the bout, and locked up his patented cradle for a pin at the 1:16 mark.
"I think Shak looked great today," Sanderson said. "He told me after the match that after Nolf got this pin train going, he had to look for that fall instead of wrestling a little more, but I thought he looked good.
"He has only competed maybe once in the last month and a half, so it was good for him to get back on the mat for a lot of reasons."
Senior Bo Nickal was on the mat for less than one period, finishing off Brett Perry with a cradle in just 1:19, but now Nickal is excited for postseason wrestling.
"We train pretty much all year so that we can go out there and just enjoy the postseason," Nickal said. "I think that's when we wrestle our best as a team so we're definitely pretty excited about it."
And Sanderson knows his team can't wait for the big stage.
"With these guys the bigger the match, the better they wrestle," Sanderson said. "We've seen that even this year. In the big matches, they show up.
"They get a little more excited for that and they're a little more spirited so finishing with that same enthusiasm and gratitude is going to be the key to them getting what they want in the postseason."
The Nittany Lions finished the regular season with an unblemished 14-0 record, their fourth straight year with a perfect campaign. They next travel to the Big Ten Championships and will compete Saturday and Sunday, March 9-10 in Minneapolis, Minn.
