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Michigan Can Beat Penn State

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#1 Penn State looks unstoppable. Their upperclassmen are on point and showing no signs of weakness. Their freshmen are stepping up and rolling. Intermat has them boasting four #1 ranked guys in this week's rankings. Right now, the team title is looked at as "Penn State or the field", and the field appears to be losing ground.

Of course, Michigan can challenge Penn State. Anything can happen in a dual and ten weights allows for wild scoring swings. However, the math is pretty interesting looking closer. It kind of boils down to this, I don't expect Michigan to knock off the #1's or Megaludis. Oddly though, bonus points don't look all that plentiful at those matches. Michigan should get bonus points at 184 & 285 due to a couple ill-placed injuries. So if Michigan can steal two or three of the remaining matches (one of them being a rematch that they won) 133, 141, and 165, we suddenly have a fight folks. 

Of course, this article is written with firm fitting homer glasses (old school rec specs) on. 

125: Conor Youtsey vs #4 Nico Megaludis

- Megaludis stumbled out of the gate with a loss to the perennially overrated Dance (Virginia Tech). He's been flawless since and the 3x All-American looks to win his first title this year. Youtsey's struggles are more severe despite the positives we once again see since the turn of the new year. Youtsey wrestles up for big matches and should make this closer than most people expect. 

133: #17 Rossi Bruno vs #5 Jordan Conaway

- Bruno's struggles this year, following a solid season that culminated with an AA finish, have been puzzling. Conaway might be a little overrated, but the DiCamillo (Virginia) win has held up big. This is a winnable match for Michigan and a big one if they want to pull the upset. 

141: Zac Hall/George Fisher vs #14 Jimmy Gulibon

- Hall has only appeared in the lineup once over Fisher, but did beat Gulibon at the Southern Scuffle after missing the first semester with an injury. Gulibon has been banged up this season and has only wrestled in two matches, to backups from Indiana & Illinois, since his loss to Hall. This is another match Michigan needs and could get a boost with the lack of a healthy Gulibon here. 

149: #6 Alec Pantaleo vs #1 Zain Retherford

- It's tough to not like Pantaleo. He fires attacks off and doesn't seem to be scared of anyone. The true sophomore appears to be a legitimate threat to anyone in the weight class. However, Retherford returned off the redshirt and appears uninterested in anyone testing him. The marquee match of the day will be interesting to see if Retherford is really that head and shoulders above everyone right now, or if Pantaleo is ready for the conversation on who is the best in the country. 

157: #9 Brian Murphy vs #1 Jason Nolf

- Murphy is funky and fun to watch but his health has been in question all year, and he would likely need to be healthy to challenge what Nolf is doing to people. Nolf has just two normal decisions on his record this year and Cael may need the bonus points here against Murphy or his backup. 

165: Garrett Sutton vs #17 Shakur Rasheed

- Sutton and Rasheed have had odd seasons with some questionable losses. Sutton has also had to deal with all the eyes on Logan Massa and redshirt questions while Rasheed has had three guys (successfully at different times) challenging for his spot. It's been difficult to predict results for either guy so far this year, so one should think of this as a toss up. 

174: #13 Davonte Mahomes vs #1 Bo Nickal

- After a tough first semester coming off of injury, Mahomes has been on a tear minus one tough loss where he was caught in a scramble by #9 Ottinger (Central Michigan) to lose a match he'd been leading the whole way. He bounced back with a win over #8 Jackson (Indiana). Nickal's one loss is to Jackson, and outside of this one blip he has tore through the season leaving several top ten guys in his wake. It should be a fun match between two guys who really commit to takedowns. 

184: #8 Dominic Abounader vs #9 Matt McCutcheon

- While having a potentially unhealthy Murphy is a huge blow to Michigan, Penn State not having a healthy McCutcheon is very unhelpful. Oddly enough though, many forget Abounader pinned McCutcheon in the dual last season. Even as a Michigan homer, it would be foolish to expect that every time. McCutcheon did leave the Illinois dual with a knee injury but fears were calmed when an MRI showed no tears. Long story short though, we will probably see Abounader against a backup and some bonus points for Michigan. 

197: #6 Max Huntley vs #1 Morgan McIntosh

- A pair of senior All-Americans will face off and they have had two matches before. McIntosh won both (3-2 & 7-4). Morgan will be favored but history shows bonus points would be ambitious. 

285: #4 Adam Coon vs ?

- Coon smash.