No more photos of Frank ripping another wrestler's face off *sigh*(Photo: BSD/Galen)
The Penn State wrestling team will finish off the 2011-2012 dual meet season Sunday at 2 p.m. against cross-state rival Pittsburgh. The Panthers will make the 2 ½ hour bus ride to take on the Lions in a sold out Rec Hall. Sunday’s dual is senior day and will be the last time Frank Molinaro and Cameron Wade take the mat in front of the home crowd. Both wrestlers have had good dual meet careers and get one more chance to thrill the home crowd.
| Wt. | PSU | vs | Pitt |
|---|---|---|---|
| 125 | #8 Nico Megaludis | #15 Anthony Zanetta Jr. (24-3) | |
| 133 | Frank Martellotti | Shelton Mack So. (16-7) | |
| 141 | Bryan Pearsall | Travis Shaffer Fr. (16-12) | |
| 149 | #1 Frank Molinaro | #12 Tyler Nauman Sr. (23-4) | |
| 157 | #5 Dylan Alton | Donnie Tasser Jr. (11-9) | |
| 165 | #1 David Taylor | Tyler Wilps R-Fr. (14-10) | |
| 174 | #2 Ed Ruth | Ethan Headlee Sr. (11-6) | |
| 184 | #2 Quentin Wright | Andy Vaughan Sr. (17-6) | |
| 197 | #12 Morgan McIntosh | #4 Matt Wilps Jr. (26-2) | |
| 285 | #6 Cameron Wade | Joel Yahner Fr. (6-18) |
Out of the two seniors, Molinaro gets the best matchup wrestling the 12thranked wrestler in the country. Hopefully Frank gets an early takedown, grinds Nauman into the mat, and goes for the major decision in the 3rd. For all the criticism I’ve thrown Cam’s way over his years at Penn State, he’s been a steady commodity and a reliable heavyweight. He’ll be missed next season for sure, but he gets Joel Yahner, a 6-18 true freshman as his parting gift, the home crowd will be looking for a pin.
Morgan McIntosh draws the toughest matchup in No. 4 Matt Wilps. Wilps, a junior, has only lost 2 matches against No. 3 Chris Honeycutt and No. 5 Matt Powless. Morgan lost to Powless as well by the same 1-point deficit. McIntosh has been winning close matches of late, look for this to be another close decision.
Nico Megaludis gets No. 15 Anthony Zanetta, a battle-tested veteran. The junior should give him a match but I look for Nico to beat Zanetta in the neutral position. Frank Martellotti gets another unranked wrestler but Shelton Mack is no fish with a record of 16-7. Frank has got to get things turned around and this is his last chance before Big Ten’s.
Then there’s Murderer’s Row. Taylor, Ruth, and Wright get three unranked and unimpressive wrestlers which won’t go well for Pitt. Wright’s opponent, Andy Vaughan has a decent record of 17-6, but he’s not in Q’s league and Quentin is in top form right now. Look for LOTS of bonus points and 1 or 2 pins from the trio.
Pitt’s a decent team and that’s reflected in their top-10 ranking, but they aren’t in Penn State’s strata yet. Having only 1 wrestler with a losing record looks good on paper but they don’t have the horses to stay with Penn State. The 3M’s (McIntosh, Megaludis, and Molinaro) will be good matches but the rest will, most likely, end up beat-downs. I went a little nuts with the final score prediction last week, I’ll tone it down a bit this week.
0 recs | 23 comments
You mean 52-0...
Right?
jesse. - February 16, 2012
48-14?
Chris Grovich - February 16, 2012
Can they win 12-0
Just to be dicks? ’Cause that would be pretty cool.
jesse. - February 16, 2012
Not for a team score
But, yeah, we could have ten dudes beat their ten dudes, each with a score of 12-0.
But that would result in a team score of 40-0, so not sure if that would spoil it.
jtothep - February 16, 2012
Right, like I said.
52-0.
jesse. - February 16, 2012
Nicely done there
I woudl love to see another 48-14
AriesGD - February 16, 2012
yes
OmarLittle - February 16, 2012
I'll go 36-6
Unless MM’s knee has drastically improved since last week he’ll lose close, something like 2-1. I’m afraid Martellotti’s done but Nico will win by decision. Bonus points for everyone else including the pin for Cam.
Frank O'Brien - February 16, 2012
This is Frankie's week!
The Wrestling Report, one of the few ranking systems which rank each weight out to 33, the number of qualifiers at the national tourney, has The Mack ranked #24. After the back to back deckings at the hands of Ramos & Stieber, Frankie had those close losses to #19 Kiley (3-4) and #11 Stevens (7-11) and of course the 1-3 loss to UVU’s unranked, but 9-3 RSFR Mangum.
I’m goin blue-tint and saying he’ll go a full 7mins and live up to his wrestling room nickname of Scorealotti (thank you, Clay Steadman!). He’ll pull the big upset and in so doing will squeak into the 8th seed for B1Gs, ahead of:
Indy’s Duca (10-14, unfaced)
Sparty’s Fifield (12-15, a 7-5 FM Dec)
NW’s Oster (11-12, a 10-4 FM Dec)
Wiscy’s McQuade (5-19, a 14-6 FM MD)
(and since I feel on a roll….) Once there, after the obligatory mauling at the hand of top-seeded Stieber or Ramos, he’ll fight ahead of the above scrubs to land in the 7th place match against Kiley where he’ll pull a Vollrath by decking him and securing a close one-point team win over Minnesota.
jtothep - February 16, 2012
You cannot be serious!
No way Minny is anywhere close to Cael’s boys Sunday afternoon at the B1G’s. As for Frankie, I hope you’re right, but he’s looked terrible the last few weeks.
Frank O'Brien - February 16, 2012
You made me look at the B1G matchups jtot
Here goes, I’ll match our top finishers vs. theirs and compare
Tank vs. Nelson – Push
Magic Man, Ruth and Q vs. Sanders, Stienhaus and Storly – Huge adv. PSU, higher finishes and more bonus pts.
Wade vs. Yohn the bigger – push, though I wanna say adv. Wade due to his recent performance
DA, Nico and MM vs. The Dardanes and Ness – very small adv. Minny unless Smackintosh heals then it’s PSU
Pearsall vs. Little Yohn – adv. Minny
Martellotti vs. 157? – adv. PSU?
The points racked up by Murderer’s Row will be too much to overcome both in placement and bonus points. I don’t see anyone but Sanders and to a lesser extent, Nelson getting bonus points.
Minnesota will be much closer to Iowa and tOSU than PSU.
Frank O'Brien - February 16, 2012
Nah, I wasn't terribly serious about the closeness
It just added to the dramatic flair of my correlating his performance’s importance to that of Vollrath’s last year. But, yeah let’s look at it. I’ma twist your look a little and stick to my comparison with 2011 Iowa and look at it weight by weight. Iowa had 4 finalists last year and Penn State had 5; PSU went 5-5 in the finals (Long, Tank, DT, Ruth, Q) and Iowa went 2-4 (McD, Rasing won;, DSJ & Uncle Luke lost). Penn State’s ‘other five’ earned 5th, 5th, 7th, 7th & nothing while Iowa’s non-finalists went 3rd, 3rd, 3rd, 4th, 5th & nothing. It was a 1pt team win, secured on the last day by bonus wins by Vollrath & Wade (despite his disappointing 5th plc finish) and, finally, by a loss by Lofthouse in the 197 final and by Nelson very nearly avoiding a pin by Rasing in the HWT finals. It was terrifically thrilling.
Minnesota looks poised to match PSU this year with finalists, without too much misfortune:
125 Finals. Sanders, unless Delgado or Nico are ready for upsets
133 Semis. Chris Dardanes; has beaten Stieber
141 Semis. Nick Dardanes; dropped 2pt or less DEC to Stieber & Marion
149 Semis. Ness; close to Grajales (3-5 loss)
157 DNP. Ortiz
165 6th or semis. Yohn; has looked rough of late
174 Finals. Storley; close with Zeerip (7-5 SV DEC)
184 Finals. Steinhaus; close with Ihnen (3-2 win) & Q
197 Finals. Yohn
HWT Finals. Nelson
They’ve only got the one hole and if Deitschler’s career weren’t sadly over, whatever cushion we think we have by our likely champions would likely not be enough. Let’s look at PSU’s most likely (* qualified, obvs, with anything can happen; upsets are pretty real):
125 Semis; Nico’s style is promising for an upset, but McD & Sanders remain the class of the weight
133 DNP or 7th
141 DNP or 7th
149 Finals; Ness is funky, but Grajales hasn’t shown he can hang with Tank yet, and Tank is on a mission.
157 Finals; DAlton; He’s been close with both Welch(1-2 loss), Green (2-1 win), Sparty’s Jones (1-0 Win) & Michigan’s Zeerip (5-4 win) so he could be champ or get bumped in the semis
165 Finals DT; Young guns Evans & Kokesh should be fun to continue to watch grow in their inevitable losses to the Sainted Unicorn.
174 Finals Ruth; Storley hasn’t lost since Matt Brown unseated him in the Scuffle Semis & he was hurt in our dual, so Ruth hasn’t seen him. Possible upset? Maybe if you haven’t watched Ed Ruth wrestle this year. I see a dude gunning hard for that Stanford Basque and would be terribly surprised to see Storley have enough offense & defense to unseat him.
184 Finals Q; he looked too much for Ihnen & may be so also to Steinhaus when he’s wrestling this well / ‘like he can’; but Steinhaus can also beat him. He’s proven each of the past two season
197 Semis McIntosh; hung with both Powless & Yohn, but knee makes it tough to say ‘likely’ upset of either
HWT Finals Wade; could be a very important swing match
I’d say we have 5 very likely finalists, as does Minny. Dylan, Morgan or Nico could make it 6 (in that order of likelihood). Minny’s got 5 very likely finalists as well, with Ness or either Dardanes who could make it 6. Championships is another story, as none of their finalists are as strong a favorite as ours to win the extra 4pts each would bring. They’d be led by Nelson & Yohn, probably, followed by Steinhaus & Storley I guess, but Sanders has never beaten McD.
It’s def looking like they’ll need more than a few ‘upsets’, but it also looks like they could make it very close.
jtothep - February 17, 2012
I don't think we're too far apart on this
As I said above, the difference will be the bonus points and 1st place points for DT, Ruth and Q. If all things break Minny’s way it will be close, PSU’s and it’s a walkover.
I absolutely agree, shame about Deitschler. He would have gone a long way to closing the gap. A potential first place finish over a DNP is a lot of points to make up.
Frank O'Brien - February 17, 2012
Also, I like D. Alton against anybody not named Welch
Assuming DSJ doesn’t make a miraculous recovery. DA should be seeded 2nd, no worse than 3, and won’t see Welch until the finals. So I’m expecting 6 PSU guys in the finals, 4 heavily favored, vs. 5 for Minny with only Nelson favored to win.
At 125, I expect seeds will go McD, Sanders, Delgado then Nico meaning Nico will face McD in the semis. He’d have better chances against the other two at this point.
Frank O'Brien - February 17, 2012
I like the enthusiasm but I have to agree with Frank, I don’t think Minnesota has the guns to be one point behind penn state.
I think their big guns in the lower weights will be in a dog fight with ohio state and Iowa. If they manage some upsets there they have a chance.
And Frank, well I hope you’re right but I’ll believe it when I see it.
psuwresfan - February 16, 2012
33-6
I don’t know how wrestling scoring works, but that was a pretty close prediction.
oh well; Hail to Pitt.
SlingStone - February 19, 2012
As much as I’d like to see what he can do vs. Wilps, I sort of think it’s best Morgan is rested this weekend.
OmarLittle - February 16, 2012
I agree he looked like his knee was really bothering him last week. I think any extra time off he can get he should take.
psuwresfan - February 16, 2012
I was thinking about mentioning that in my write-up
Although anytime you get to wrestle one of the best is a good time to wrestle, I think resting Morgan would be a good move, and let’s all be honest with ourselves, don’t we ALL want to see what Brown can do against an elite?!?!
Galen - February 17, 2012
Yea that is the flip side if he somehow beats Wilps that’s a major confidence boost heading into the post season.
As for Brown I’m disappointed there is a minimum weight for heavyweight other wise I would recommend bumping him up there next season.
psuwresfan - February 17, 2012
Bummer, can't go this week, thought there was a chance I would get tickets from my friend at work.
I think Martellotti gets untracked this week and scores a lot, but loses the major because he runs out of gas. I see it 40-3 with MM not quite ready and pins at 74, 84 and hwt.
BMAN13 - February 17, 2012
though if someone from the area
(rambler, jtot, jman) wanted to take a chance, there were lots of tickets available outside Rec Hall for the OSU match, people even just let them lay on the wall as match time got closer. I just won’t take that chance with my 6 yr old grandson. I would drive up.
BMAN13 - February 17, 2012
Any video coverage?
I really enjoyed UVU’s coverage of last week’s bout, even though the commentators wind up reading the hog futures just to have something to talk about while their wrestlers were getting handled.
PSU_Lions_84 - February 17, 2012
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