Penn State Stays on Top

Cael’s rocket ship of glory is not back in orbit yet as #1 Penn State held off Michigan 25-11. There were several close matches, but the hosts found ways to win in an arena of almost 16,000 people.

Michigan got off to a good start as they were expected to in the first two matches, but Nick Lee swung the momentum in the other direction with a great win over Storr in a top ten match-up. Lee completed a well-timed takedown to start the scoring and then somehow scrambled out of an ankle pick for his second takedown in the first period. The hill was too much to climb after that for Storr.

Malik Amine and Jarod Verkleeren got into some interesting spots trading scores, but in the end it was the senior getting the win for the visitors. Amine out-scrambled his way to a 7-5 win hopefully gaining steam looking for his first All-American finish.

Last year’s dual was Nolf’s closest win of his career, a 6-4 rideout to defeat Pantaleo. This match was helped by top work again as he caught a bow and arrow for four near fall to complete a 6-0 first period. Pantaleo would score a takedown, but the third period was not very eventful as it ended 9-2.

The two-time national champion, Joseph, was pushed again by Massa, but Joseph got the win to be 3-0 against his Michigan foe. A go-behind in sudden victory was the only score of the match.

Another slow match happened at 174 and Hall used his hips and spun behind for a takedown in the last minute. Amine likes to scramble, but the shot was too far away and left him vulnerable.

184 was a match we thought we wouldn’t see. Embree made his first appearance of 2019 and Rasheed had been missing time due to injury as well. The freshman Wolverine gave up two takedowns in the first, but hung in there to only drop the 5-3 decision.

Penn State would close out the dual in style. Bo Nickal did what he does in front of big crowds., put on a show and get a pin. Cassar used his athleticism to dominate the freshman phenom Parris including a beautiful blast double for six in the opening moments of the match.

Penn State improved their record to 10-0 with the win and Michigan is knocked from the undefeated ranks with a 9-1 record. We will likely see a lot of these matches again at the Big Ten Championships.

Results:
125: #15 Drew Mattin MICH dec. Devin Schnupp PSU, 6-0 0-3
133: #1 Stevan Micic MICH tech fall Scott Stossel PSU, 20-5 (TF; 7:00) 0-8
141: #7 Nick Lee PSU dec. #5 Kanen Storr MICH, 10-4 3-8
149: Malik Amine MICH dec. Jarod Verkleeren MICH, 7-5 3-11
157: #1 Jason Nolf PSU dec. #5 Alec Pantaleo MICH, 9-2 6-11
165: #1 Vincenzo Joseph PSU dec. #7 Logan Massa MICH, 4-2 (sv) 9-11
174: #1 Mark Hall PSU dec. #3 Myles Amine MICH, 3-2 12-11
184: #2 Shakur Rasheed PSU dec. Jelani Embree MICH, 5-3 15-11
197: #1 Bo Nickal PSU pinned Jackson Striggow MICH, WBF (5:50) 21-11
285: #4 Anthony Cassar PSU maj. dec. #8 Mason Parris MICH, 19-8 25-11
Attendance: 15,703
(6th highest indoor figure in NCAA history (Penn State has the top four), fifth highest in PSU history, Penn State has wrestled in front of 51 sell-outs in its last 53 home events / 46 straight in Rec Hall and 5 of 7 in the BJC)