Penn State wrestling’s solid defense leads way to school-record 39th straight win

Penn State coach Cael Sanderson wasn’t surprised his squad set a new record Friday night with its 39th straight victory.

However, the manner in which the Nittany Lions picked up the 43-6 win over Purdue in Rec Hall seemed to catch him off-guard. Not only did Penn State win the rest of its bouts after forfeiting the first at 125 pounds, but it also dominated in another key category.

“I didn’t realize we didn’t give up a takedown,” Sanderson said of the teams’ 28-0 advantage. “We were really close a few times, but the guys did a nice job of fighting stuff off.”

Corey Keener was one of those “guys,” as he fought off several takedown attempts from Purdue’s Ben Thornton at 133 pounds. Thornton shot in on a low single, midway through the first period. Keener went into a split to keep Thornton from reaching his other leg.

In the second period, Thornton got off two more solid shots. Keener fought for nearly a minute on the first attempt and earned the stalemate call. The second attempted takedown got stopped due to the end of the period. Keener went on to win the bout 3-2 thanks to a takedown with just over half of the period remaining.

“It was great to see Corey do that,” Sanderson said. “You have to be ready for Purdue because they are tough and they come in and wrestle hard. Kudos to their coach and their program.”

Nick Lee made his Rec Hall debut following Keener and immediately had the Boilermakers’ Nate Limmex carrying his leg high in the air. Lee fought off Limmex and turned the position into a scoring opportunity for himself.

From that point, it was all Lee, recording four more takedowns and amassing 2:27 in riding time for the 14-4 major decision in what he labeled a dream come true.

“It’s nothing like I’ve ever experienced before,” Lee said when asked about competing in Rec Hall for the first time. “It’s special because the fan base that is in Rec Hall is special. It was definitely a lot of fun. I tried to absorb that but at the same time keep my mind on wrestling.”

Lee’s win started a string of seven straight bonus-point victories for the Nittany Lions.

Zain Retherford collected six takedowns before pinning Austin Nash in 1:41 at 149 pounds. It was Retherford’s 50th career pin; he needs just three more to tie David Taylor and Josh Moore for most in program history.

Jason Nolf raced out to an 8-3 lead before sticking Cole Wysocki in 3:45 to give Penn State a 19-6 lead at the break. Vincenzo Joseph stayed red hot with an 18-3 technical fall off Jacob Morrissey in 4:58 out of the break.

Mark Hall earned the only other major decision win of the night, 11-3, over Dylan Lydy. Bo Nickal picked up a pin of his own against Max Lyon in 1:55 at 184 pounds. Shakur Rasheed got the nod at 197 pounds. He proved that not even Purdue’s Kobe Woods can stop his cross-face cradle from coming in a fall with 1:18 left in the first period.

Nick Nevills finished the dual off with a 4-2 decision.

The dual had an unusual start to it with the Nittany Lions handing the Boilermakers an early 6-0 lead. Penn State didn’t have a single wrestler available at 125 pounds. According to Sanderson, two of his wrestlers were sick and newly transferred Carson Kuhn still isn’t certified yet.

It was the first forfeit the Nittany Lions have had since giving up free points to Virginia Tech in November of 2015.

“We felt terrible about forfeiting (1)25, but we just didn’t have a choice,” Sanderson said. “We’d pull someone off the street if we could, but they don’t really let you do that. They have a good kid at that weight, so I felt bad about that.”

Still, what was important to Penn State was just getting the win. The first real threat to snap the streak comes Feb. 3, when Penn State hosts Ohio State in Rec Hall.

However, Sanderson isn’t concerned about the match next month.

“We are going to get ready for our next one on Sunday; that’s kind of what we are focused on,” he said. “We’ve had some great matches in the past and great teams in the last couple of years. But this isn’t the time to really reflect on that.”

This story was originally published January 19, 2018 at 10:34 PM with the headline "Penn State wrestling’s solid defense leads way to school-record 39th straight win."