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Penn State falls short of dethroning Buckeyes, finishes second in B1G

Penn State University Wrestling fell just short at the B1G Tournament finishing second to Ohio State University. (Photo courtesy of Penn State Wrestling)

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Points were at a premium Sunday at the 2018 Big Ten Wrestling Championships and Penn State couldn’t score nearly enough to dethrone defending champion Ohio State.

The Buckeyes won their third title in the last four years at Michigan State’s Breslin Center by crowning four champions, three runners-up, two third-placers and a ninth-placer to qualify its entire team for the NCAA Championships on March 15-17 at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland.

Penn State finished as runner-up for the second year in a row, crowning three champs, two runners-up, a pair of third-place finishers and a sixth- and seventh-place finisher for nine NCAA qualifiers.

Ohio State accumulated 164.5 points, widening the gap it enjoyed over Penn State (148) by three points on Sunday. Michigan, with two champs and two runners-up, finished third with 118 points. Iowa finished a distant fourth with 90.5 points, no champions and just one runner-up.

“I think the guys wrestled well. These are matches they’ve got to win if they want to be national champions in a week and a half. We’ve just got to make a few adjustments,” Penn State coach Cael Sanderson said. “I think Ohio State just wrestled really well. They won the tournament.”

Zain Retherford (149), Mark Hall (174) and Bo Nickal (184) all won titles. It was Retherford’s third and the first for Hall and Nickal. Retherford was named Wrestler of the Year for the second time. He also won it in 2016.

With the win, Retherford eclipsed Kerry McCoy’s school record of 88 straight wins. It was 89 in a row for Retherford. He also became just the fifth Nittany Lion to win three Big Ten championships.

Nick Lee (141) and Nick Nevills (285) each rebounded from semifinal losses to wrestle back for third.

Jason Nolf (157), after medically forfeiting in the semifinals and consolation semifinals, shared the sixth-place podium position with Iowa’s Michael Kemerer, who was upset by fall in the semifinals and then medically forfeited his consolation semifinal bout.

Corey Keener (133) finished in seventh place to qualify for nationals for the fourth time. The first three times came during his time at Central Michigan.

Carson Kuhn fell short of his bid for an automatic bid when he lost a mini-tournament bout to Michigan’s Drew Mattin for the right to wrestle for ninth at 125 pounds. Kuhn won the final bout of his collegiate career to finish 11th.

Retherford won a tight 2-0 decision over Iowa’s Brandon Sorensen in the final, to improve his record against the Hawkeye to 6-0. A third-period escape and 1:36 in riding time (Retherford rode Sorensen the entire second period) made the difference.

“He’s good. He came out ready to go on his feet, hand fighting hard. It was tough to get to his leg. That’s what he did well,” Retherford said.

“He’s hard to hold down. I’m usually looking to turn him there and he was countering a lot of things, a lot of little things. He’s good on bottom.”

Hall survived another nip-and-tuck battle with Michigan’s Myles Amine, 4-3. Hall edged him in the dual meet, 6-5.

After a scoreless first period, Hall escaped seven seconds into the second and took a 1-0 lead into the third. Amine reversed Hall but he quickly escaped to tie the match at 2-2. Hall then worked hard for a takedown and ceded an escape to hang on for the win.

“It feels pretty good, finally. It only took me two years,” Hall said, adding that the key to the win was keeping his cool. “Just staying focused. I could have gotten excited and tried to cut off to a double too fast. Just staying focused and being smart.”

Nickal improved his record against Ohio State’s Myles Martin to 6-2 with a measured, controlled 7-4 decision. He scored takedowns in the first two periods to lead, 4-2 with 2:13 in riding time heading into the third. He escaped but Martin emerged from a wild scramble with a takedown to close to within 5-4. Nickal escaped and blocked off Martin the rest of the way, adding a point for 1:42 in riding time for the win.

Nickal declined to be interviewed after his win.

“I think he’s upset he gave up a takedown but it was two great wrestlers and it was like re-shot to the re-shot to the re-shot; they were just going back and forth and he got taken down,” Sanderson said. “So that’s fine, as long as he’s wrestling and give the takedown that’s fine. I thought Bo wrestled well.”

Joseph wrestled another classic battle with Isaiah Martinez of Illinois, who Joseph pinned in the 2017 NCAA final. This time Martinez came out on top, scoring all four of his points in the third period in a 4-1 win. With the score tied 1-1 but Martinez having riding time locked up, he countered a Joseph takedown attempt for a late takedown of his own.

“The difference was a few extra seconds of riding time. Cenzo’s just got to get out a little earlier and then whoever gets the takedown wins,” Sanderson said. “I think Cenzo’s fine. He’s got a good attitude and he’s moving forward getting ready for the next one.”

Rasheed fell in the final to Ohio State’s Kollin Moore, 8-4. Moore scored four takedowns on Rasheed and allowed just four escapes. Rasheed could not finish any takedown attempts on the Buckeye and Moore chose neutral to avoid going on bottom against the Nittany Lion.

“Moore is good at what he does; he does that to everybody,” Sanderson said of those four takedowns, adding he would have to wait and see if Rasheed can devise a defense against it. “We’ll see. He has that feeling and he knows what to expect now.”

Penn State has 10 days to prepare for the NCAA tournament and tried to duplicate what it did last year — finish runner-up at the Big Ten tournament and then win the NCAA title. It would be Penn State’s third in a row and seventh in eight years.

“We’ll find out at the nationals if we’re ready to roll. We wrestled fine. We didn’t wrestle well enough to win, obviously,” Sanderson said.

“Ohio state wrestled really well. They have a great team so if we want to beat them, we have to win those close matches, we have to score bonus points.”

Results Saturday and Sunday from the 2018 Big Ten Wrestling Championships at the Breslin Center in East Lansing, Michigan.

Final Team Scores:

1. Ohio State 164.5

2. Penn State 148

3. Michigan 118

4. Iowa 90.5

5. Nebraska 72.5

6. Wisconsin 67

7. Minnesota 66.5

8. Illinois 62.5

9. Purdue 59.5

10. Northwestern 55.5

11. Rutgers 42.5

12. Maryland 30.5

13. Indiana 10

14. Michigan State 9.5

Key to teams: Illinois – ILL; Indiana – IU; Iowa – I; Maryland – MD; Michigan – MICH; Michigan State – MSU; Minnesota – MINN; Nebraska – NEB; Northwestern – NW; Ohio State – OSU; Penn State – PSU; Purdue – PUR; Rutgers – RUT; Wisconsin – WIS.

Preliminary round

125: (1) Nick Suriano, RUT, bye; (9) Travis Piotrowski, ILL, dec. (8) Drew Mattin, MICH, 7-1 SV; (5) Ethan Lizak, MINN, dec. (12) Johnny Jimenez, WIS, 3-1; (4) Sebastian Rivera, NW, dec. (13) Brandon Cray, MD, 9-2; (3) Nathan Tomasello, OSU, won by tech. fall over (14) Carson Kuhn, PSU, 21-6 (5:52); (6) Luke Welch, PUR, dec. (11) Mitch Maginnis, NEB, 6-2; (7) RayVon Foley, MSU, maj. dec. (10) Elijah Oliver, IND, 15-3; (2) Spencer Lee, I, bye.

133: (1) Steven Micic, MICH, won by tech. fall over Jhared Simmons, MD, 17-2 (3:48); (8) Ben Thornton, PUR, bye; (5) Scott Delvecchio, RUT, dec. Jens Lantz, WIS, 3-1; (4) Jason Renteria, NEB, pinned Logan Griffin, MSU, 3:56; (3) Mitch McKee, MINN, pinned Colin Valdiviez, NW, 1:55; (6) Corey Keener, PSU, bye; (7) Dylan Duncan, ILL, maj. dec. Paul Glynn, I, 9-1; (2) Luke Pletcher, OSU, dec. Garrett Pepple, IU, 5-4.

141: (1) Joey McKenna, OSU, pinned Javier Gasca III, MSU, 2:09; Vince Turk, I, dec. (8) Eli Stickley, WIS, 6-0; (5) Nate Limmex, PUR, bye; (4) Chad Red, NEB, dec. Ryan Diehl, MD, 6-0; (3) Michael Carr, ILL, maj. dec. Alec McKenna, NW, 10-2; (6) Tommy Thorn, MINN, bye; (7) Cole Weaver, IND, dec. Sal Profaci, MICH, 7-3; (2) Nick Lee, PSU, maj. dec. Mike Van Brill, RUT, 12-2.

149: (1) Zain Retherford, PSU, bye; (9) Steve Bleise, MINN, dec. (8) Malik Amine, MICH, 6-2; (5) Ke-Shawn Hayes, OSU, maj. dec. (12) Eric Barrone, ILL, 12-1; (4) Colton McCrystal, NEB, maj. dec. (13) Jwan Britton, MSU, 17-5; (3) Ryan Deakin, NW, pinned (14) A.J. Raya, IND, 1:40; (6) Eleazar Deluca, RUT, maj. dec. (11) Austin Nash, PUR, 14-5; (7) Alfred Bannister, MD, maj. dec. (10) Cole Martin, WIS, 14-6; (2) Brandon Sorensen, I, bye.

157: (1) Michael Kemerer, I, pinned Jake Danishek, IND, 3:48; (8) John Van Brill, RUT, dec. Griffin Parriott, PUR, 4-2; (5) Tyler Berger, NEB, dec. Shayne Oster, NW, 8-3; (4) Micah Jordan, OSU, bye; (3) Alec Pantaleo, MICH, bye; (6) Andrew Crone, WIS, maj. dec. Justin Alexander, MD, 10-1; (7) Jake Short, MINN, dec. Kyle Langenderfer, ILL, 4-0; (2) Jason Nolf, PSU, pinned Jake Tucker, MSU, 2:34.

165: (1) Isaiah Martinez, ILL, bye; (8) Isaiah White, NEB, dec. (9) Te’Shan Campbell, OSU, 6-1; (5) Evan Wick, WIS, pinned (12) Austin Hiles, MSU, :32; (4) Richie Lewis, RUT, maj. dec. (13) Brendan Burnham, MD, 20-7; (3) Vincenzo Joseph, PSU, pinned (14) Mike Sepke, NW, 3:39; (6) Nick Wanzek, MINN, dec. (11) Bryce Martin, IND, 5-2; (7) Logan Massa, MICH, won by tech. fall over (10) Jacob Morrissey, PUR, 17-2 (3:39); (2) Alex Marinelli, I, bye.

174: (1) Mark Hall, PSU, pinned Logan Ritchie, MSU, 5:33; (8) Ryan Christensen, WIS, dec. Chris Pfarr, MINN, 4-0; (5) Johnny Sebastian, NW, pinned David Riojas, ILL, 3:58; (4) Dylan Lydy, PUR, bye; (3) Myles Amine, MICH, dec. Joe Grello, RUT, 6-0; (6) Devin Skatzka, IND, bye; (7) Joey Gunther, I, dec. Beau Breske, NEB, 4-3 TB2; (2) Bo Jordan, OSU, pinned Josh Ugalde, MD, 1:57.

184: (1) Bo Nickal, PSU, bye; (8) Brandon Krone, MINN, dec. Mitch Sliga, NW, 6-5; (5) Nick Gravina, RUT, dec. Buddy Conley, IND, 3-0; (4) Emery Parker, ILL, dec. Shwan Shadaia, MSU, 5-1; (3) Dom Abounader, MICH, maj. dec. Mitch Bowman, I, 13-2; (6) Tyler Venz, NEB, bye; (7) Ricky Robertson, WIS, won by tech. fall over Niko Cappello, MD, 16-1 (7:00); (2) Myles Martin, OSU, pinned Max Lyon, PUR, 2:46.

197: (1) Kollin Moore, OSU, bye; (8) Eric Schultz, NEB, dec. Nick May, MSU, 3-2; (5) Hunter Ritter, WIS, dec. David-Brian Whisler, MD, 5-3; (4) Kevin Beazley, MICH, dec. Dylan Anderson, MINN, 9-4; (3) Cash Wilcke, I, dec. Andre Lee, ILL, 4-2 TB2; (6) Christian Brunner, PUR, pinned Anothy Messner, RUT, 4:56; (7) Zack Chakonis, NW, bye; (2) Shakur Rasheed, PSU, dec. Jake Kleimola, IND, 8-4.

285: (1) Adam Coon, MICH, bye; (8) Rylee Streifel, MINN, dec. Christian Rebottaro, MSU, 3-0; (5) Youssif Hemida, MD, dedc. Ben Stone, WIS, 8-3; (4) Sam Stoll, I, dec. Razohn Gross, RUT, 4-1; (3) Nick Nevills, PSU, maj. dec. Duece Rachal, ILL, 11-3; (6) Conan Jennings, NEB, dec. David Jensen, NEB, 2-0; (7) Shawn Streck, PUR, bye; (2) Kyle Snyder, OSU, won by tech. fall over Fletcher Miller, IND, 24-9 (7:00).

Quarterfinals

125: Surian dec. Piotrowski, 9-2; Lizak dec. Rivera, 3-2; Tomasello maj. dec. Welch, 14-3; Lee pinned Foley, 2:43.

133: Micic maj. dec. Thornton, 10-2; Renteria dec. Delvecchio, 3-1; McKee dec. Keener, 9-4; Pletcher dec. Duncan, 4-3.

141: McKenna dec. Turk, 4-0; Limmex dec. Red, 6-4; Carr dec. Thorn, 8-6; Lee maj. dec. Weaver, 13-3.

149: Retherford maj. dec. Bleise, 14-1; Hayes dec. McCrystal, 7-6; Deakin maj. dec. Deluca, 11-1; Sorensen dec. Bannister, 4-3.

157: Kemerer maj. dec. Van Brill, 15-5; Jordan dec. Berger, 4-3; Pantaleo dec. Crone, 7-3; Nolf maj. dec. Short, 15-2.

165: Martinez dec. White, 7-4; Lewis dec. Wick, 6-4; Joseph maj. dec. Wanzek, 18-10; Massa dec. Marinelli, 8-6 SV.

174: Hall pinned Christensen, :47; Sebastian dec. Lydy, 2-1; Amine dec. Skatzka, 9-5; Jordan dec. Gunther, 8-3.

184: Nickal pinned Krone, 1:25; Parker dec. Gravina, 5-2; Abounader dec. Venz, 6-4; Martin won by tech. fall over Robertson, 23-8 (7:00).

197: Moore dec. Schultz, 10-4; Beazley pinned Ritter, 6:31; Brunner dec. Wilcke, 8-2; Rasheed dec. Chakonis, 11-8.

285: Coon maj. dec. Streifel, 12-2; Stoll dec. Hemida, 8-1; Nevills dec. Jennings, 5-0; Snyder maj. dec. Streck, 17-6.

Semifinals

125: Lizak won by Med. FF over Suriano; Tomasello dec. Lee, 2-1.

133: Micic won by tech. fall over Renteria, 19-3 (7:00); Pletcher dec. McKee, 6-4 SV.

141: McKenna dec. Limmex, 6-0; Carr dec. Lee, 10-6.

149: Retherford maj. dec. Hayes, 10-0;

157: Jordan pinned Kemerer, 5:48; Pantaleo won by Med. FF over Nolf.

165: Martinez dec. Lewis, 8-5; Joseph dec. Massa, 5-4.

174: Hall dec. Sebastian, 4-1; Amine pinned Jordan, 5:28.

184: Nickal dec. Parker, 5-2; Martin dec. Abounader, 7-3.

197: Moore dec. Beazley, 5-3; Rasheed maj. dec. Brunner, 10-2.

285: Coon pinned Stoll, 2:12; Snyder maj. dec. Nevills, 14-5.

Place Matches

125 pounds

Final: Nathan Tomasello, OSU, dec. Ethan Lizak, MINN, 10-7.

133 pounds

Final: Stevan Micic, MICH, dec. Luke Pletcher, OSU, 7-4.

141 pounds

Final: Joey McKenna, OSU, maj. dec. Michael Carr, ILL, 13-0.

149 pounds

Final: Zain Retherford, PSU, dec. Brandon Sorensen, I, 2-0.

157 pounds

Final: Alec Pantaleo, MICH, dec. Micah Jordan, OSU, 3-1.

165 pounds

Final: Isaiah Martinez, ILL, dec. Vincenzo Joseph, PSU, 4-1.

174 pounds

Final: Mark Hall, PSU, dec. Myles Amine, MICH, 4-3.

184 pounds

Final: Bo Nickal, PSU, dec. Myles Martin, OSU, 7-4.

3rd: Dom Abounader, MICH, dec. Tyler Venz, NEB, 7-3.

5th: Emery Parker, ILL, dec. Brandon Krone, MINN, 6-0.

7th: Ricky Robertson, WIS, dec. Mitch Bowman, I, 9-4.

197 pounds

Final: Kollin Moore, OSU, dec. Shakur Rasheed, PSU, 8-4.

3rd: Hunter Ritter, WIS, won by inj. def. over Kevin Beazley, MICH, 3:45.

5th: Christian Brunner, PUR, won by Med. FF over Cash Wilcke, I.

7th: Eric Schultz, NEB, dec. Zack Chakonis, NW, 3-1.

285 pounds

Final: Kyle Snyder, OSU, dec. Adam Coon, MICH, 4-2 SV2.

3rd: Nick Nevills, PSU, dec. Sam Stoll, I, 5-2.

5th: Conan Jennings, NW, dec. Youssif Hemida,

7th: Shawn Streck, PUR, dec. Rylee Streifel, MINN, 10-3.

Wrestler of the Year: Zain Retherford, 149, Penn State.

Freshman of the Year: Spencer Lee, 125, Iowa.

Coach of the Year: Tom Ryan, Ohio State

Wrestler of the Championships: Isaiah Martinez, 165, Illinois.

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