UNIVERSITY PARK — It didn’t take long for the Penn State wrestling team to get over its first loss of the season to Big Ten foe Minnesota.
The big picture is clear — it’s too early to be hitting any sort of panic button.
It might take the Nittany Lions a bit longer to fix a weakness in their overall game — a lack of ability to ride from the top position or being unable to escape from the bottom that contributed heavily to Penn State’s 23-14 defeat at the hands of the Golden Gophers.
Minnesota dominated Penn State in terms of riding time, earning over 15 minutes on top and six riding time points in 10 bouts.
“It’s just pretty much the same as it was before we lost that match,” senior 149-pounder Frank Molinaro said of the team’s focus. “I guess that loss just kind of helped us work on some things, just some positions like on the mat. A lot of guys now are focusing more on the mat and those positions that they might have felt bad in.”
While Molinaro dominated his Minnesota opponent, putting together strong rides from the top position to accrue 4:01 of riding time en route to a 16-10 win, the majority of his teammates were on the other end of long Gopher rides.
Minnesota controlled bouts by riding Penn State wrestlers out in the second periods to prevent the Nittany Lions from generating any counterattacks of their own.
At 125, Penn State’s Nico Megaludis chose down to begin the second period and was ridden out. At 133, 184 and 285 pounds, Penn State’s Derek Reber, Quentin Wright and Cameron Wade were either taken down or reversed early or midway through the second and unable to mount an escape and go on the offensive.
While head coach Cael Sanderson gave his squad last Wednesday evening and all Thursday off to they could return to their families for Thanksgiving, he held a rigorous practice on Tuesday with the majority of the session dedicated to escapes.
Before the Nittany Lions could move to their next drill or leave the Lorenzo Wrestling Complex, each able-bodied member of the 37-man roster had to get out from under the teammate with who they were paired.
For Molinaro, who has made a career out of wearing his opponents down with heavy rides and who led the team with 11 riding time points last season, there’s more to mat wrestling than constantly tweaking technique.
Sanderson’s message, Molinaro said, was aimed at priming the Nittany Lions aggressive mentality when faced with starting from the bottom position.
“It’s more of an attitude type of thing,” Molinaro said. “You can’t leave until everyone gets out. (Sanderson)’s kind of putting it on us. Everyone knows the technique, how to get out, but it’s more of an attitude on bottom. He’s just trying to relay that message to some of those guys that aren’t getting out on bottom. At practice we couldn’t go on to the next thing until everyone got out. So we were here for like three hours.”
Penn State sent a plethora of young wrestlers to the mat last season and had similar concerns early, Sanderson said. The Nittany Lions have started four freshman so far in two duals.
Freshmen Morgan McIntosh and Megaludis have both said from the start of the season they are focused on improving their mat skills.
For Molinaro, a top-heavy grappler with elite upper-body strength, his physique and power permit him to control the majority of his opponents. He’s had more than four years in the program to fully develop himself, however.
Such is not the case with young wrestlers.
“They can probably get out on anybody in high school because kids aren’t really that great on top,” Molinaro said of his young teammates. “But when you get to college, you’ve got to be able to ride people for a minute to win big matches. So people really focus on the mat, especially when you’re younger because you might not be as strong as some of these older guys. That makes it doubly hard to get out.”
Four of the Nittany Lions young starters, true freshmen Megaludis and McIntosh and redshirt freshmen Sam Sherlock and Dylan Alton have all expressed the desire to improve their riding abilities.
Sanderson is sure they’ll get plenty of opportunities to do so.
“Naturally, as a program, we spend a lot of time on the mat,” Sanderson said. “Even last year, we had a young team and that’s an area, it’s easy to overlook that position. It’s not the most fun place to work. Your kids want to be on their feet, hitting takedowns and the big, fun stuff. It’s those little areas that win the big matches, though.”
