How to watch Penn State wrestlers vie for a spot on Team USA at the Olympic trials
Update: Neither former Nittany Lion Nick Suriano nor 2016 Olympic bronze medalist J’Den Cow are now competing for a spot on Team USA this weekend. USA Wrestling announced Friday morning that Cox failed to make weight at 97 kg. Suriano is reportedly out “due to COVID testing.”
While the U.S. wrestling Olympic Team Trials will no longer be held at the Bryce Jordan Center this weekend, Penn State wrestling fans can still follow all the action taking place in Fort Worth, Texas.
Live coverage of the two-day event will be broadcast across NBC Sports Network, Peacock and NBC Sports’ digital platforms, starting at 11 a.m. Friday. The finals will air on NBCSN (and the digital platforms) starting at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
Penn State leads all other varsity men’s college teams, according to USA Wrestling, with 12 current or former wrestlers entered to compete for a chance to represent Team USA in Tokyo this summer.
Three of Penn State’s four recent national champs, Aaron Brooks (86 kg), Nick Lee (65 kg) and Carter Starocci (86 kg) are competing this weekend, all in men’s freestyle. So are their current teammates Greg Kerkvliet (125 kg in men’s freestyle) and Mason Manville (77 kg in Greco-Roman). Former Nittany Lion standouts Vincenzo Joseph (74 kg), Bo Nickal (86 kg), Jason Nolf (74 kg), Zain Retherford (65 kg), Frank Molinaro (65 kg) and David Taylor (86 kg) are set to compete in freestyle. Nick Suriano, who transferred from Penn State in 2017, was also entered.
Of those wrestlers, only one — Molinaro — has previously made an Olympic team, placing fifth at the Rio Olympics in 2016. The former Penn State national champ and assistant coach had planned on last year’s trials being his final event, and announcing his retirement at his alma mater. After last year’s event was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he announced his retirement online and took an assistant job at Arizona State. But he’s back for at least one more go.
Also back in action is 2018 World Champion David Taylor. An injury kept Taylor from competing for another world medal in 2019. He returned to competition last year, shortly before everything shut down, to win gold at the Pan American Olympic Qualifier, qualifying the U.S. at 86 kg for the Tokyo Games.
Of these 12 wrestlers, three — Retherford, Nolf and Taylor — earned No. 1 seeds.
But for Nolf, earning the top seed in the challenge tournament doesn’t make him the favorite. Earning byes at 74 kg are two-time World gold medalist Kyle Dake and 2012 Olympic champ and four-time World champ Jordan Burroughs. Dake gets to sit out until the semifinals of the challenge bracket because of his 2019 World gold medal at a non-Olympic weight, and Burroughs gets to sit until the best-of-three finals on Day 2 because of his 2019 World gold at 74 kg. Which of those two earns the starting spot on Team USA is one of the biggest storylines of the weekend.
The other main weight everybody will be watching this weekend is 97 kg, where only one of either 2016 Olympic gold medalist and two-time World gold medalist Kyle Snyder or 2016 Olympic bronze medalist and two-time World gold medalist J’den Cox can earn the starting spot. Snyder, a three-time NCAA champ from Ohio State, now trains with the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club on Penn State’s campus.
Other athletes representing — or with ties to — the NLWC are Thomas Gilman, Helen Maroulis and Jennifer Page. Gilman, the former three-time All-American from Iowa and 2017 World silver medalist, earned the top seed at 57 kg in men’s freestyle. Maroulis, who became the first American to win Olympic gold in women’s freestyle wrestling in 2016, is a current resident training with the NLWC. She has a bye to the finals at 57 kg. Past Junior World medalist Page is the No. 5 seed at 62 kg.
Here’s how to watch this weekend’s action:
2021 U.S. wrestling Olympic Team Trials
When: Friday and Saturday
Where: Dickies Arena, Forth Worth, Texas
How to watch:
| Time | Date | Round (for all 3 styles) | Network |
| 11 a.m. | Friday | Challenge tournament (mats 1, 2, 3 and 4) | Peacock |
| 7:30 p.m. | Friday | Challenge tournament finals (mat 2) | NBCSN, NBCSports.com and NBC Sports app |
7:30 p.m. | Friday | Challenge tournament finals (mats 1, 3 and 4) | Peacock |
| 1 p.m. | Saturday | Challenge tournament consolations (mats 1, 2 and 3) | Peacock |
| 7:30 p.m. | Saturday | Championships series (mat 2) | MSNBC |
| 7:30 p.m. | Saturday | Championships series (mats 1 and 3) | NBCSports.com and NBC Sports app |
Former/current Nittany Lions entered
| Seed | Weight | Wrestler | Style |
| No. 5 | 57 kg | Nick Suriano | men’s freestyle |
| No. 1 | 65 kg | Zain Retherford | men’s freestyle |
| No. 6 | 65 kg | Nick Lee | men’s freestyle |
| No. 7 | 65 kg | Frank Molinaro | men’s freestyle |
| No. 1 | 74 kg | Jason Nolf | men’s freestyle |
| No. 7 | 74 kg | Vincenzo Joseph | men’s freestyle |
| No. 1 | 86 kg | David Taylor | men’s freestyle |
| No. 6 | 86 kg | Bo Nickal | men’s freestyle |
| No. 10 | 86 kg | Aaron Brooks | men’s freestyle |
| No. 11 | 86 kg | Carter Starocci | men’s freestyle |
| No. 6 | 125 kg | Greg Kerkvliet | men’s freestyle |
| No. 6 | 77 kg | Mason Manville | Greco-Roman |
This story was originally published April 1, 2021 at 1:25 PM.
