UNIVERSITY PARK — Before Penn State started its midweek practice inside the Lorenzo Wrestling Complex on Wednesday, sophomore Ed Ruth took a moment to hop on a stationary bike.
There, he reflected, between breathes on his performance in last year’s Southern Scuffle Tournament. It was a coming out party of sorts for Ruth, who’s now the nation’s No. 2-ranked 174-pounder.
Then a freshman, Ruth clobbered the rest of the 174-pound field en route to his first major tournament win. To be named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Wrestler was a nice bonus.
Ruth’s individual performance mirrored that of his and his teammates’ overall success in the team standings, as the Nittany Lions finished as tournament co-champions.
Now, they’re ready to do it all again.
No. 5 Penn State (4-1, 0-1) will send 15 wrestlers — including its full contingent of eight ranked grapplers — to the mats inside the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga’s McKenzie Arena for the two-day team tournament. Only 10 will count toward the team score, however.
For Penn State, the road trip couldn’t come soon enough, as the Nittany Lions have gone two weeks without competitive action.
“This is probably one of the toughest tournaments during the year besides the national tournament, so this is a good preparation,” sophomore No. 1 165- pounder David Taylor, who won the tournament last year at 157 pounds, said. “You should be looking at it as this is something you gear up for before you hit the second half of the season. It kind of kickstarts it.”
Last season, the Lions’ tie with then-No. 1 Cornell atop the team leaderboard earned them confidence moving forward.
After a relatively ho-hum first two months of the season which saw the Lions easily manhandle their lesser opponents and give up a Big Ten loss to No. 3 Minnesota, head coach Cael Sanderson will be looking for a similar intensity that his squad displayed in this tournament last year.
“It was really our first chance in a team-scored event to really see what kind of a tournament team we had,” Sanderson said. “We saw that last year. We had a pretty good dual meet team, but we had a much better tournament team.
“The success that these guys had at the Scuffle, I think really got them moving and excited and fired up. And we went into that tournament without Quentin (Wright) and (Andrew) Long wasn’t in our lineup yet and still, we were right there with a team that at the time was looked at as almost untouchable. So it was a big boost for the confidence of our kids.”
This year, Penn State will enter the tournament at near full strength.
While Long is no longer with the team, Wright will make his first appearance in the tournament’s 184-pound bracket after an injury prevented him from entering last season.
Wright, ranked No. 6, has peeked at his bracket, albeit briefly, where a familiar foe could await. State College High graduate and current Cornell standout Steve Bosak is in the top portion of the 184-pound bracket while Wright is on the bottom leg.
The only way the two could meet in the championship bracket would be in the final. They could cross paths sooner in wrestle-backs, however.
“There will probably be a little bit of history there because he’s from State College and I’m wrestling from Bald Eagle,” Wright said. “So there’s probably going to be that rivalry here in the area but outside of that it’s just going to be a good match.”
Sanderson is expecting a competitive tournament.
This year’s Scuffle will pit eight of the nation’s Top 25 against one another. No. 3 Minnesota and Indiana will join the Lions as the only other Big Ten teams.
No. 4 Cornell will return to try to claim another share of the tournament title. No. 11 Missouri, No. 15 Virginia Tech, No. 16 Oregon State, No. 21 Virginia and No. 25 Hofstra round out the ranked teams that will appear.
Joining Ruth, Taylor and Wright will be No. 1 Frank Molinaro at 149, No. 8 Cameron Wade who will be looking to repeat as champion at 285, No. 10 Dylan Alton at 157, No. 11 Morgan McIntosh at 197 and No. 13 Nico Megaludis at 125.
Starters Derek Reber at 133 and Bryan Pearsall at 141 pounds will round out the wrestlers who can score team points for Penn State.
Notes:After sitting out the first semester, Frank Martellotti is academically eligible and will wrestle in the Scuffle. The sophomore will wrestle in the 133-pound weight class this weekend. … Sam Sherlock did not make the trip with the team as Sanderson said the red-shirt freshman is still recovering from an ankle injury. Sherlock practiced with the team this week. … Freshman Seth Beitz who was originally listed as a 149/157 pounder, has been certified at 141 pounds and will wrestle in that lower weight class at the Scuffle. … Also expected to compete are James Vollrath (157), Matt Brown (174) and Jon Gingrich (285).
