UNIVERSITY PARK — Now in his third year at the helm of one of the country’s most vaunted wrestling programs, Cael Sanderson has learned how to pick his spots.

He’s not a screamer. Doesn’t do a whole lot of prodding. He comes across as being laid back. He manages his assistants and listens to his wrestlers, adjusting his coaching philosophy and teachings on a case-by-case basis.

He preaches attitude and the importance of accountability.

Often, his words of wisdom or clever analogies and metaphors will hit home with his wrestlers, like when he described how his team should keep its train of thought during its upcoming road trips to Northwestern and Wisconsin.

“A dog in hunt doesn’t stop to scratch its fleas,” Sanderson said. “You’ve got to stay focused.”

Sanderson’s practice usually includes a brief talk with his wrestlers before each workout.

They’ll form his congregation, all of them perched on the bleachers inside the Lorenzo Wrestling Complex, Sanderson is the maestro for a few minutes then he cuts them loose to begin their afternoon session.

“He always talks to us before practice and he’ll usually tell us a little story or a little metaphor or something just to think about while we’re at practice just to give us that little extra burst of energy,” senior Quentin Wright said.

If they need reminders, Penn State wrestlers can look no further than to the concrete columns that keep the facility standing, on which Sanderson’s constantly changing messages inspire and even draw laughs from time to time.

Sanderson has used huge, yellow smiley face posters, colorful party balloons and signs that read, simply, ‘Smile!’ in order to keep his team loose all while drilling home a collective message.

On Tuesday, two signs stood out: ‘I Am Mean’ at the farthest end from the room’s entrance and ‘I Choose,’ closest to the door.

“Are you choosing to win? Or are you going to choose to lose?,” Wright said, when asked how the signs encourage him. “Are you going to choose to give it everything you have and fight through it? Or are you going to choose to relax and let the other guy get a little bit better than you? And it comes down to an attitude where he uses the pre-practice talks to change our attitude to help us make the right decisions in practice which is to fight harder in every position which will then translate to out on the mat.”

Megaludis learns from mistake

As soon as Nico Megaludis locked in on Eric Olanowski’s arm and swung the Michigan State wrestler to the mat, the Penn State freshman knew he was in trouble.

Olanowski was injured and Megaludis was disqualified in match he was dominating after using a “key lock”, which the referee deemed was an illegal throw.

“I was just trying to be aggressive and I hit the move,” Megaludis said. “I’ve hit it about 15 times in high school and never got it called illegal on me. This match, it was illegal. I knew it as soon as it happened.”

It was a tough loss at the time for Megaludis to take as he had been dominating a much more experienced collegiate wrestler than himself. Megaludis was leading 8-3 and said he was trying to stick Olanowski for a pin with the “key lock.”

Sanderson said he hasn’t seen that called often, but that the referee “made the right call” and it’s better that it happened now than later, say at Big Tens or the NCAA Tournament.

“(Megaludis) was really starting to dominate the match,” Sanderson said. “When the arm comes out like that it’s an illegal move and it’s just something we’ve got to stay away from.”

Weighty obstacles

Before the Penn State’s Tuesday practice, Frank Molinaro took time to roll around with Sanderson on the floor of the Lorenzo Wrestling Complex.

After running a handful of sprints.

Afterward, a sweaty, winded Molinaro said he was trying to get an early start on his weight-cutting routine.

“Trying to get my weight down a little bit. I just need to lose a couple of more pounds … and I’ll be good,” Molinaro, the team’s top-ranked 149-pounder said.

While Molinaro has rarely, if ever, had any trouble cutting weight before a dual, he made the observation that it can be a tricky process for a team with a travel schedule like Penn State’s.

The Nittany Lions’ most recent slate of duals are all away, the next two at Northwestern and Wisconsin respectively, and sitting on a bus or plane for hours on end leaves wrestlers with no avenues to keep their weight down.

Molinaro has been running sprints immediately after his dual matches end this season to get an early jump on his weight management.

“I just think that we’re so used to having everything so perfect, workout facilities, (close) travel, training, it’s just a little adversity,” Molinaro said. “It was Ok. It was good for us. It’s good to get that kind of trip in the books.”

Part of spectacle

Penn State wrestlers were reminded what it was like to wrestle at the NCAA Tournament, where all finals matches take place on a raised platform, when they stepped foot in Kellogg Arena on Sunday.

As a part of the Michigan Youth Wrestling Association Spartan Country Youth Tournament, the Spartans hosted Penn State away from their usual home inside Jenison Field House on Sunday.

Penn State and Michigan State battled on a raised platform centered between all the other mats on which Sanderson estimated about 600 kids competed and watched the dual unfold matside. The official attendance was estimated at over 3,000.

“It was cool. They have a really unique and very successful kids’ program in Michigan,” Sanderson said. “It was a little different but it was a good change for our guys. It’s no big deal, they’ve been going to tournaments like that their whole lives and been a part of things like that. That’s just being able to find the eye of the hurricane there and stay focused and for the most part we did that.”

Travis Johnson can be reached at 231-4629.