CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — Penn State 141-pounder Sam Sherlock has been removed from the No. 5-ranked wrestling team for a “violation of team rules and policies” Penn State Sports Information Director Pat Donghia confirmed Saturday night.
Head coach Cael Sanderson was not available for comment as the team participated in its first day of action at the Southern Scuffle at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
Sherlock, a redshirt freshman from West Mifflin, was 3-3 this season. He was in the process of trying to return to the mat after an ankle injury sustained at the Nittany Lion Open on Dec. 4. Sherlock was present and warmed up with his teammates at the team’s practice on Wednesday, but did not travel with the squad to Chattanooga.
Meanwhile, inside UT-Chattanooga’s McKenzie Arena, Penn State put together an impressive first day of wrestling.
Led by blistering performances from No. 2 Ed Ruth, No. 5 Quentin Wright and No. 1 David Taylor, who combined to score 49 points, the Nittany Lions sit atop the team leader board with 118 team points.
No. 3 Minnesota is second with 110.5 and No. 11 Missouri is third with 83.5. No. 4 Cornell, the team Penn State shared the championship with last season, is in fourth with 79 points.
Penn State will send nine wrestlers into semifinal bouts in their respective championship brackets today and three more are still alive in consolation matches.
Ruth, who won the tournament’s most outstanding wrestler award last year, will meet Missouri’s Patrick Wright in the semifinals at 174 pounds while Wright will face No. 15 Luke Rebertus of Navy at 184. Cornell’s Steve Bosak, a State College graduate ranked No. 4 at 184, will also wrestle in today’s semifinals. Taylor will wrestle No. 20 Kyle Blevins of Appalachian State at 165.
Joining them in semifinals will be No. 1 Frank Molinaro — who won his 100th career bout when he beat The Citadel’s Samuel McCauley by a 16-0 technical fall — will face No. 20 Scott Sakaguchi of Oregon State at 149. No. 10 Dylan Alton will face Corey Mock of North Carolina at 157, No. 11 Morgan McIntosh will battle No. 1 Cam Simaz of Cornell at 197 and No. 8 Cameron Wade will face No. 4 Clayton Jack of Oregon State at 285.
No. 13 Nico Megaludis will face Oregon State’s Pat Rollins in a fourth-round consolation match at 125 while Penn State 141-pounder Bryan Pearsall will wrestle Cornell’s Michael Nevinger in the fourth round of their consolation bracket. Penn State heavyweight Jon Gingrich is also alive in the 285-pound consolations, where he will face Cornell’s Maciej Jochym.
While their bouts don’t count in the overall team score, James Vollrath and Matt Brown have bulled their ways into semifinal bouts at 157 and 174 pounds, respectively.
Vollrath, a sophomore, will face No. 1 Kyle Dake of Cornell while Brown, a redshirt freshman, will match up against Minnesota’s Logan Storley.
Penn State 133-pound starter Derek Reber was eliminated from the tournament after going 0-2, losing two decisions each a 4-3 score. Redshirt freshman 141-pounder Seth Beitz went 3-2 on the day and was eliminated at 141.
Junior Nick Fischer also saw his day end early after going 2-2 at 165 pounds.
