Penn State Dominates Day 1 of Southern Scuffle
CHATTANOOGA – The Penn State Nittany Lion wrestling team (5-0, 1-0 B1G) dominated the first day of the 2018 Southern Scuffle in Chattanooga, Tenn. The Nittany Lions picked up nearly 40 wins in Monday action and moved out to a large lead in the team race.
Penn State pushed eight wrestlers into Tuesday morning’s semifinals at seven different weights. The Nittany Lions are looking for their seventh Southern Scuffle title, having won six in a row before not competing at the event last year. After the first day of action the Nittany Lions have 101 points, followed by Northern Iowa with 81.5 and Lehigh with 68.
Penn State had 18 wrestlers competing at the team scored tournament, 16 attached and two unattached. Head coach Cael Sanderson’s squad had ten wrestlers seeded at the event, including seven top seeds: Senior Corey Keener (Schuylkill Haven, Pa.), ranked No. 18 at 133, was the No. 4 seed; junior Jered Cortez (Carol Stream, Ill.), ranked No. 15 at 141, was the No. 3 seed; true freshman Nick Lee (Evansville, Ind.), unattached at 141, was the No. 5 seed; senior Zain Retherford (Benton, Pa.), ranked No. 1 at 149, was the No. 1 seed; junior Jason Nolf (Yatesboro, Pa.), ranked No. 1 at 157, was the No. 1 seed; sophomore Vincenzo Joseph (Pittsburgh, Pa.), ranked No. 1 at 165, was the No. 1 seed; sophomore Mark Hall (Apple Valley, Minn.), ranked No. 2 at 174, was the No. 1 seed; junior Bo Nickal (Allen, Texas), ranked No. 1 at 184, was the No. 1 seed; sophomore Anthony Cassar (Rocky Hill, N.J.), ranked No. 9 at 197, was the No. 1 seed; and junior Nick Nevills (Clovis, Calif.), ranked No. 3 at 285, was the No. 1 seed.
Rounding out Penn State’s entrants were red-shirt freshman Devin Schnupp (Lititz, Pa.) at 125; junior George Carpenter (Chapel Hill, N.C.) at 133; red-shirt freshman Bo Pipher (Paonia, Colo.) at 149, true freshman Jarod Verkleeren (Greensburg, Pa.) wrestling unattached at 149; sophomore Francisco Bisono (Hauppauge, N.Y.) at 174; senior Matt McCutcheon (Apollo, Pa.) at 197; junior Shakur Rasheed (Coram, N.Y.) at 197; and red-shirt freshman Alex Nicholas (Allentown, Pa.) at 285.
Schnupp was Penn State’s scoring wrestler at 125 and went 0-2. At 133, Keener bounced back from an upset loss in round two to major Carpenter and Northern Iowa’s Rudy Yates in consolation action. Keener heads into day two’s conso action with a 3-1 mark, all wins by major. Carpenter, with his loos to Keener, ended his tournament with a 1-2 mark. At 141, Cortez roared out to a 3-0 start with a forfeit win and two decisions. But late in the third period of his third round win, Cortez was injured and finished the final 12 seconds unable to put weight on one foot. He ended his Scuffle with a 3-0 mark after injury forfeiting out of the tournament. True freshman Lee, wrestling unattached and therefore not a scoring wrestler for Penn State in the team race, was a perfect 3-0 on the day, including a tech a pin and a major.
Retherford rolled through day one, posting a 3-0 mark with two pins and a tech fall. The Lion senior’s performance has him set for Tuesday’s semifinals. Verkleeren advanced to the quarterfinals before losing, going 2-1 with a major. The unattached true freshman will wrestle in consolation action Tuesday. Pipher went 0-2 at 149 as well. Nolf rolled to a 3-0 mark with a forfeit victory and two pins to advance to the quarterfinals at 157. Joseph posted a 3-0 mark to roll into the semis as well, picking up a pin and a tech in the process. Hall went 3-0 to move into the quarters at 174 with two quick pins and a major in the quarterfinals. Bisono went 0-2 at 174.
Nickal was a perfect 3-0 on the day as well, getting three first period pins at 0:56, 1:34 and 1:09 to move into the semifinals. Cassar posted a 2-0 mark at 197 as the top seed, moving into the semifinal round tomorrow morning. Rasheed had an outstanding first day at 197, going 3-0 with two wins over ranked wrestlers, including a pin in just :27 over No. 15 Scottie Boykin of Chattanooga in the quarterfinals. Rasheed’s 3-0 day has him in tomorrow’s semifinals. McCutcheon picked up a first round pin but then suffered an injury default loss in the second round and bowed out of the tournament with a 1-1 mark. Nevills suffered a 4-3 upset loss in the quarterfinals and went 2-1 on day one. He will wrestle in tomorrow morning’s consolation action. Nicholas picked up his first win as a Nittany Lion at 285, going 1-2 at 285.
Penn State posted a 36-14 record on day one, with nine majors, three techs and 14 pins. Retherford now has nine pins for the season, 45 for his career (fourth all-time at Penn State); Nolf has ten this year and 39 for his career (fifth all-time); Nickal has eight this year and 33 for his career (ninth all-time) and Hall has seven this year and 19 for his career (nearing PSU’s top 20).
The Southern Scuffle continues Tuesday at 10 a.m. The Nittany Lions’ next home dual is a Big Ten battle against Purdue in Rec Hall on Friday, Jan. 19, at 7 p.m.
