UPDATE: No. 1 Penn State downs No. 16 Minnesota 35-8 in Rec Hall White Out

UNIVERSITY PARK — Through the years as a competitor and a coach, Cael Sanderson has had streaks of success and struggles against Minnesota.

As a wrestler, of course, he never lost against the Golden Gophers. As a coach, one of his few hiccups heading into Friday night’s match against Minnesota was his 1-4-1 record against the Gophers.

The top-ranked Nittany Lions took another step toward fixing that one blemish on their coach’s resume as they dismantled the Gophers, 35-8, Friday night in front of a Rec Hall Whiteout crowd of 6,588. It was the second consecutive win for a Sanderson-coached squad against Minnesota and Penn State’s 41st consecutive dual meet win.

Penn State won eight of 10 bouts, once again dominating on its feet with a 28-4 edge in takedowns. The Nittany Lions had two falls, a forfeit, two major decisions and three decisions in their 41st consecutive dual meet victory.

It was Penn State’s first home win over Minnesota since a 21-13 victory in the Bryce Jordan Center on Feb. 6, 1998 and the first win over the Gophers in Rec Hall since Feb. 20, 1994.

Minnesota coach Brandon Eggum, who has had his struggles against Sanderson and Sanderson-coached teams, knew his team could be in for a long night.

“It was tough. You’ve got to give respect. Penn State’s got a great team, a lot of great wrestlers. We knew coming in here it was a great crowd and a great environment. It’s never easy to wrestle in that,” he said.

Eggum is now 0-2 in his young coaching career against Sanderson and Penn State. The second-year Minnesota coach lost in consecutive NCAA tournaments to Sanderson in 1999 (6-1 in the finals) and 2000 (16-5 in the semifinals).

With the match starting at 157 pounds after a rare draw to determine the starting weight, and Minnesota having to forfeit at 149 with its starter out with an injury, the most anticipated bout of the night was the last.

At 141, junior All-American Tommy Thorn, ranked No. 10, figured to give Lion true freshman Nick Lee, ranked No. 7, a stern test. That never came to pass.

Lee opened a 4-2 lead through two periods with a takedown in each period. In the third, Lee extended his lead with another takedown. Then, when Thorn took a what his coach termed “a bad shot” Lee countered with a go-behind takedown into a near cradle for six points in what turned into a 13-3 major decision.

“Nick’s a great wrestler and hustles really well in all positions. He can overwhelm people. If you smell that, sometimes you don’t let a guy recover. Sometimes they’re mentally out of the match and they don’t pull themselves back and focus on the wrong things it’s hard to recover,” Eggum said.

“I think that was a little bit of it with Tommy. There’s multiple things that could have happened there. I think he didn’t wrestle in positions that he could have. I think he started to lose track of where he was and as a result he takes a bad shot in the third period and gives up a go-behind and hangs his head and gives up a cradle.”

Sanderson liked what he saw from his talented freshman.

“I think he’s wrestling really well, obviously, right now. The more comfortable he is, as you saw today, he has a number of different attacks. He’s a force,” he said.

With the match starting at 157, as usual, Jason Nolf recorded a bunch of takedowns. He piled up seven against No. 18 Jake Short in a 19-5 major decision.

Then, at 165 and 174, fans witnessed a rare occurrence this season, back-to-back decisions. Vincenzo Joseph used the only takedown of the match in the first period to earn a 3-1 win over No. 7 Nick Wanzek.

Then, at 174, Mark Hall stretched a 2-1 lead on Chris Pfarr heading into the third period into a 10-3 win with three slick third-period duck under takedowns.

“I was proud of those first guys. At 165, Nick Wanzek continues to wrestle really well for us. He put himself in a position to really win, if not for that one takedown with a second left in the first period, that match could have gone either way,” Eggum said.

With Penn State leading, 10-0, the Nittany Lions then got back-to-back pins to expand their lead to 22-0 at the intermission.

Bo Nickal scored seven takedowns on Dylan Anderson before flopping him to his back with the last one and securing the fall at 5:31.

At 197, Shakur Rasheed needed just 55 seconds to lock up a crossface cradle and pin Brandon Krone, Rasheed’s 11th fall of the season.

Penn State then made it six wins in a row after the break. Nick Nevills used a second-period escape and third-period rideout for a riding-time point and a 2-0 win over Rylee Streifel.

Minnesota finally broke through with its first takedown of the match and first win at 125. No. 6 Ethan Lizak amassed nearly 5 minutes of riding time in a 15-0 technical fall in 6:23 over Devin Schnupp.

The Gophers added another win at 133 as No. 12 Mitch McKee ran out to an 11-0 lead on Corey Keener before the Nittany Lion rattled off four takedowns to prevent a major decision in a 15-8 loss.

Despite the loss, Eggum seemed encouraged by the progress he’s made with the program as Year 2 heads toward the home stretch.

“I’m excited for a couple things. We have a great recruiting class coming in. I think that’s exciting because you see here what you can do with obviously very talented wrestlers. But they have to be the right guys. Talent just doesn’t win. You have to have the right kids with the right mentality who go out and wrestle hard,” he said.

“You’ve got to give respect to the seniors on our team because I think they’re the reason those kids decided to come to our program. I was proud of our guys last year how they battle through adversity and finished well. It’s a good start. We have to continue to build. We know we have a lot of work to do to get back to where we want to be.”

Sanderson reflected on his relationship with Eggum and the early years transitioning from an assistant to the head man.

“I’ve known Eggum for a long time. I trained in Minnesota occasionally with Tim Hartung. (Eggum’s a) great guy. He’s been a staple in the Minnesota program for a long time. He’s really had a lot of success there as an assistant coach,” Sanderson said.

“It is a lot different as a head coach. He’s figuring it out. His teams are tough. He has great kids. I don’t feel bad for him at all. They’ve got a great program.”
No. 1 Penn State 35

No. 16 Minnesota 8

(Friday at University Park)
157: No. 1 Jason Nolf, PSU, maj. dec. No. 18 Jake Short, 19-5.
165: No. 1 Vincenzo Joseph, PSU, dec. No. 7 Nick Wanzek, 3-1.
174: No. 2 Mark Hall, PSU, dec. Chris Pfarr, 10-3.
184: No. 1 Bo Nickal, PSU, pinned Dylan Anderson, 5:31.
197: No. 10 Shakur Rasheed, PSU, pinned Brandon Krone, :55.
285: No. 6 Nick Nevills, PSU, dec. Rylee Streifel, 2-0.
125: No. 6 Ethan Lizak, MINN, won by tech. fall over Devin Schnupp, 15-0 (6:23).
133: No. 12 Mitch McKee, MINN, dec. Corey Keener, 15-8.
141: No. 7 Nick Lee, PSU, maj. dec. No. 10 Tommy Thorn, 13-3.
149: No. 1 Zain Retherford, PSU, won by forfeit.
Attendance: 6,588.
Takedowns: Minnesota 4; Penn State 28.
Records: Minnesota 7-6, 2-3; Penn State 10-0, 6-0.
Next match: Penn State at Rutgers, 2 p.m. Sunday.