Nittany Lions see five champions crowned at Southern Scuffle
The new year started with another victory for Penn State.
The Nittany Lions had five champions crowned and 10 wrestlers place in their run for a sixth straight Southern Scuffle title on Saturday at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Penn State finished with 183 points to top Oklahoma State by 25. Lehigh finished third with 104.5 points with Cornell and North Carolina rounding out the top five.
“I think that just shows the depth that we have,” Penn State’s Bo Nickal, who was named the Outstanding Wrestler of the tournament, said to the Penn State Sports Network. “Every weight class we have multiple guys that are solid. It’s awesome to be in that environment in the room with those training partners on top of the partners from the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club.”
The Nittany Lions had six wrestlers in the finals with Nico Megaludis (125 pounds), Zain Retherford (149), Jason Nolf (157), Nickal (174) and Morgan McIntosh (197) taking the top spots. Jordan Conaway (133) joined the quintet but ran into No. 1-ranked Nashon Garrett of Cornell and suffered a 14-4 loss. Last year, Penn State didn’t have a single champion.
Megaludis, Retherford, Nolf and McIntosh were top seeds. Nickal was a No. 4 seed, and had to face No. 1 Brian Realbuto from Cornell in the semifinals. It’s safe to say he passed the test well with a dominating 14-7 upset. It was a run Nittany Lion coach Cael Sanderson enjoyed.
“The first two periods were especially fun to watch,” Sanderson said of Nickal’s semifinal match and title run to the Penn State Sports Network. “It was a great tournament for Bo. It was probably one of the deeper weight classes. For Bo to win convincingly, that’s a good thing.”
Nickal squared off in the final with North Carolina’s Ethan Ramos, who upset No. 2 Kyle Crutchmer from Oklahoma State. Nickal used four takedowns and three escapes to earn the 11-7 victory. Nickal opened the day with a decision before his semifinal victory.
“It’s so much fun,” Nickal said of his tournament. “It’s what I live for. I believe that God put me out here for a purpose.”
Megaludis started the day off with a milestone win in the quarterfinals. He picked up a 15-5 major decision for his 100th career victory. He beat Lehigh’s Darian Cruz 6-3 in the semifinals and finished with an 8-1 win over Eddie Kilmara of Oklahoma State in the finals.
Retherford and Nolf dominated their opponents for their titles. Retherford used two technical falls and a major decision, with one tech fall coming in the finals against North Carolina’s Evan Henderson. Nolf used two falls to open the day and then had a tough 7-3 win over JoJo Smith. Smith was wrestling unattached and is the son of Oklahoma State coach John Smith.
McIntosh was steady, opening with two falls. He used a takedown with 27 seconds left to edge Minnesota’s Brett Pfarr 3-2 for his first Southern Scuffle title.
Kade Moss (141), Zack Beitz (157), Geno Morelli (165) and Garett Hammond (165) were the other place winners for the Nittany Lions.
Morelli was the lone wrestler of three entered by the Nittany Lions in the 165 field to be in the championship bracket. He lost his quarterfinal in sudden victory and was in the consolation bracket with Hammond and Shakur Rasheed. Hammond wrestled his way to the consolation quarterfinals to face Morelli. Morelli picked off Hammond with a 2-1 tie-breaker victory to move into the fifth-place match while Hammond dropped into the seventh-place bout.
Rasheed won his first match of the day before being eliminated in the next round. Morelli received a medical forfeit to finish fifth. Hammond pinned Campbell’s Paul Duggan in the first period for seventh.
Moss and Beitz each started the day in the quarterfinals but dropped their first matches of the day. Moss fell to Dean Heil of Oklahoma State with Beitz falling to Smith. They both went on to win their first consolation matches, then Moss fell in the consolation quarterfinals as Beitz moved on the semifinals. Moss’ day finished in the seventh-place match, where he fell 9-6 to West Virginia’s Tony DeAngelo. Beitz earned an 8-6 win to finish fifth.
Matt McCutcheon was unable to wrestle in the 184 quarterfinals after he apparently suffered a back injury in his win over Michael Macchiavello in Friday’s third round. Macchiavello is the same opponent McCutcheon suffered his other back injury against in the Nittany Lion Open.
Facing a stretch of six straight Big Ten opponents through the rest of January, the Nittany Lions stay on the road to visit Purdue and Indiana on Jan.8 and 10, respectively.
“We go on a fun run here,” Sanderson said. “You got to enjoy it. Back-to-back is part of the process. The Big Ten is a tough schedule. But, history will show you that that tough schedule works and prepares you for what you need to do.”
This story was originally published January 2, 2016 at 10:29 PM with the headline "Nittany Lions see five champions crowned at Southern Scuffle."