Nittany Lions claim 3 individual titles, capture Big Ten Championship

Penn State coach Cael Sanderson said Saturday his team needed to finish strong.

The Nittany Lions came out a little flat on Sunday but still walked away with their fifth Big Ten title in six years inside Iowa’s Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

Penn State had six individuals in the finals but only could convert on three. Zain Retherford, Bo Nickal and Morgan McIntosh won their respective weight classes.

Retherford’s 149-pound title came at the right time. The Nittany Lions, to that point, were 1-5 on the day, with two of losses coming in the finals.

“We started out a little slow and a lot of that has to do with the matchups you have,” Sanderson said. “That was a huge match, Iowa had a lot of momentum. They’re very strong in the lower weights so they were scoring bonus points. It was a big match just for the team race.”

The redshirt sophomore squared off with Iowa’s Brandon Sorensen. The pair circled around the mat trying to pick their spot to score. Retherford found his with 42 seconds remaining in the first period.

He added an escape point in the second period to take a 3-0 lead going to the third period. Sorensen chose bottom and Retherford, like he has all year, used a strong ride. He racked up 2:36 in riding time and won 4-0.

Retherford, who was named the Big Ten’s Wrestler of the Year, downplayed the importance of his match.

“The guys are going to wrestle hard regardless of how I did,” he said. “Momentum is a good thing so maybe it changed the tide a little bit. The guys are wrestling hard and they are going to continue to wrestle hard.”

Following another tough loss, Nickal got Penn State another individual crown.

The redshirt freshman did it with ease in an 18-9 major decision of Illinois’ Zac Brunson. He opened the match with three takedowns and took a 6-3 lead. He added another takedown in the second and led 8-5.

In the final frame, Nickal went to work. He used an escape, two takedowns and four near-fall points to extend his lead.

“Bo had a great tournament,” Sanderson said. “He had to have been one of those guys that received a lot of votes for wrestler of the tournament. He dominated in the finals there. Bo was relaxed and went out and scored a bunch of points.”

McIntosh finished off his Big Ten career as a two-time champion. He edged the Hawkeyes’ Nathan Burak 3-2 in the 197-pound final.

McIntosh recorded the lone takedown of the match with 1:11 left in the first period. Burak escaped and trailed 2-1 to open the second.

Burak’s escape in the second period was the only point scored. McIntosh went on to get his own escape in the third period for the winning point.

“It’s what I came here to do,” McIntosh said with a smile and a laugh. “I wish I could have put a little more effort into that match and scored more points. I want to apologize to the fans for not making that as an exciting match as it could have been. It feels good to get the win regardless of how the match went.”

Nico Megaludis, Jimmy Gulibon and Jason Nolf all fell in their finals matchups.

Nolf, who was named the Big Ten’s Freshman of the Year, got a rematch with Illinois’ Isaiah Martinez at 157 pounds. Martinez, to that point, didn’t look like a wrestler who was a returning NCAA champion. He edged Nebraska’s Tyler Berger in the quarterfinals 14-11 and then held off Michigan’s Brian Murphy in the semifinals 5-4.

His match against Nolf needed a second set of tie-breakers to decide the title.

The pair traded escapes in the second and third period. Nolf’s came with 24 seconds remaining in the regular match. After that, again escapes were traded in the ride out periods with Nolf’s once again coming late — eight seconds to be exact.

In the second set of ride out periods, Nolf escaped in the first ride out period with 22 seconds remaining. Martinez quickly countered and looked to have secured a takedown just as time expired in the period. The takedown wasn’t awarded and Illinois’ coaches challenged.

The review confirmed no takedown.

Leading 3-2, all Nolf had to do was ride Martinez out for the final frame, which would eliminate the 29 seconds of riding time Martinez had. Martinez escaped after about seven seconds had fallen off the clock. Martinez won due to having riding time advantage in the second tie-breaker.

Martinez was named the tournament’s outstanding wrestler.

“It’s great,” Martinez said with a smile. “(Nolf) proved to me himself as a great competitor when he beat me. I don’t know if I was quite as ready for the level of competition that he provides. Since that loss, I’ve been thinking about it every day. He is a fantastic wrestler. We’re going to have a lot more great battles in the future.

“He’s definitley top three competitors I’ve ever faced,” Martinez continued. “He provides a lot of challenges. He’ll compete hard against me and that’s what I want.”

Megaludis had a rematch with Ohio State’s Nathan Tomasello at 125 pounds.

The pair went into sudden victory tied 1-1. With 36 seconds remaining, Tomasello notched a takedown for the 3-1 win.

Gulibon, who to some was a surpise finalist, took on Rutgers’ Anthony Ashnault in the 141-pound finale. After a scoreless first period, Ashnault dominated.

In the second period, Ashnault tilted Gulibon for four near-fall points and later two more near-fall points to lead 6-0.

Ashnault had a choice for the third period and wanted to go neutral. He notched a takedown and then had riding time built up for a 9-0 major decision win. Ashnault was the Scarlet Knights’ lone title winner.

Jordan Conaway and Matt McCutcheon finished their Big Ten Championship in the consolation bracket.

Conaway wrestled his way back to the third-place match at 133 pounds. He faced Wisconsin’s Ryan Taylor, who knocked him out of the championship bracket in the quarterfinals.

Conaway and Taylor were tied at 3-3 at the end of the second period. Taylor needed a takedown with six seconds remaining to tie it up.

Taylor opened the third on the bottom and got a reversal with 1:40 remaining. Conaway escaped 33 seconds later but couldn’t get the last point to tie in the 5-4 loss.

McCutcheon fell into the fifth-place match at 184 pounds after falling to Rutgers’ Nick Gravina 4-1 to start the day. McCutcheon matched up with Illinois’ Jeff Koepke for the third time this season. He used an escape and a takedown on the edge of the mat with five seconds remaining in the match to win 3-1.

Geno Morelli fell in the seventh-place match at 165 pounds on Sunday. He came up one spot short of an automatic spot into the NCAA tournament.

Morelli squared off with Iowa’s Patrick Rhoads. With 24 seconds left in the sudden victory period, Rhoads caught Morelli in a low single leg and finished for the 4-2 win.

Morelli will have to wait until Wednesday when the NCAA announces the field for the tournament set for March 17-19 inside Madison Square Garden in New York City.

“Overall, we wrestled pretty darn well,” Sanderson said. “We lost a couple tight matches in the finals but two losses came to national champs. Our guys wrestled well, three champions and we have eight through. We would’ve like to get 10 but you got to show up and earn your way. This was a great atmosphere. It doesn’t get much better than wrestling the Big Ten Championships at Iowa.”

Notes: The Nittany Lions finished with 150.5 team points, which was 23.5 points better than Iowa. Ohio State finished a point behind the Hawkeyes with 126. Nebraska (117) and Rutgers (106.5) rounded out the top five. … Penn State Athletic Director Sandy Barbour was in attendance all weekend. She was there when the Nittany Lions were awarded the trophy. “It’s a great tribute to our kids and how hard they work. We couldn’t be prouder of how they represent us and the excellence they showed this weekend,” she said. … Sanderson was named the Big Ten Coach of the Year and was presented the award by legendary Iowa coach Dan Gable. … Retherford, Nickal and McIntosh joined Ohio State’s Tomasello and Kyle Snyder, Iowa’s Cory Clark and Sammy Brooks, Rutgers’ Ashnault, Illinois’ Martinez and Wisconsin’s Isaac Jordan on the all-conference team.

This story was originally published March 6, 2016 at 10:30 PM with the headline "Nittany Lions claim 3 individual titles, capture Big Ten Championship."