Penn State wrestlers club Nebraska as Altons return and Ruth romps

Penn State defeats Nebraska 33-9

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(Gallery by Paul Chaplin | pchaplin@pennlive.com)

As yet another season-high crowd — this time, 6,618 — watched Penn State’s wrestling team dismantle Nebraska 33-9 on Sunday, they saw at least two things that rarely happen and one that these days just about always occurs.

The victory, the team’s eighth, was expected. Andrew Alton getting pinned? Ed Ruth being taken down? Those were a shock to the system.

But the crowd survived and so did Ruth, in his typical impressive fashion, as the top-ranked Lions have four days to prepare for a showdown at Iowa on Friday on the Big Ten Network.

The Alton twins were back in the Lions’ lineup after a month-long suspension due to a violation of team rules. Both won one-point elimination bouts last week, Andrew over James English and Dylan over James Vollrath.

Only one won on Sunday as Dylan was still strong in the third period while Andrew wasn’t. Third-ranked Andrew took down No. 12 Jake Sueflohn and turned him for a 4-0 lead but his offense ended there. Sueflohn maintained the pressure, reversed Alton in the third period and locked up an air-tight headlock for a fall in 5:33.

Dylan, ranked sixth, tangled with No. 4 James Green and took Green down with 13 seconds left in the match to give State a 16-6 lead at the five-match intermission.

“He shot and I re-shot and I was able to get the angle I wanted from there to go behind to get to the legs,’’ Dylan said about the winning flurry.

Penn State coach Cael Sanderson called for a video review on a first-period call that didn’t award Dylan a takedown. “Yeah. I thought I thought I held him there but either way you have to keep on wrestling. Whether I got it or didn’t, didn’t really matter.’’

Dylan won the Ridge Riley Award, given to the outstanding wrestler of the match. “Dylan knew he had a big match, did a great job conditioning,’’ Sanderson said. “He rightfully won the award because James Green is a very good wrestler.’’

Sanderson noted that Andrew wasn’t himself. “Why that is we’ll figure it out,’’ he said. “He trains hard and it’s just a matter of making that decision to go out there and enjoy yourself. He wasn’t all there tonight.’’

Mr. Ruth was, despite yielding the opening takedown. The top-ranked Ruth ended up winning by technical fall over No. 8 Josh Ihnen. “Usually if I give up the first takedown it’s my fault and I made a mistake. I don’t like giving up little points like that.’’

Just in case the crowd didn’t sense that, Ruth rang up three takedowns on Ihnen and, better yet, three nearfalls by taking Ihnen to his back from the standing position to the tilt position.

“There’s lots of things I can do on top,’’ said Ruth, who is known for throwing cradles from all positions. “He might have been schooled on the cradle, but I guess he wasn’t schooled on the tilt.

“Guys usually always stand up if I can catch an arm, I’m comfortable sitting behind the legs and falling back and catching the wrist (to set up the tilt),’’ Ruth said.

“That’s not something we work on in practice,’’ Sanderson said about Ruth’s new-look offense. “That’s just Ed Ruth.’’

Other winners were Nico Megaludis at 125 by forfeit along with Jordan Conaway at 133 and Bryan Pearsall at 141.

After the break, State’s David Taylor at 165 opted to use tilts for his offense, too -- five to be exact -- en route to a technical fall in 5:09 over Tyler Koehn.

Nebraska’s Robert Kokesh, ranked fourth, will slide up to at least third this week by virtue of his 10-7 win over No. 3 Matt Brown. Both wrestlers were spared by the buzzer, Brown on his back at the end of the second period and Kokesh on his at the end of match. But two takedowns, a reversal and a nearfall was enough offense for the Cornhusker sophomore.

The Bald Eagle Area duo of Quentin Wright and Jon Gingrich close out the match with wins as Wright dumped Grove City PIAA champ (2009) Caleb Kolb 10-2 and Gingrich controlled Spencer Johnson at heavyweight, 7-4.

SUMMARY

Penn State 33, Nebraska 9

125: Nico Megaludis, PS won by forfeit.

133: Jordan Conaway, PS md Shawn Nagel 14-5.

141: Bryan Pearsall, PS d Ridge Kiley 2-0.

149: Jake Sueflohn, N p Andrew Alton 5:33.

157: Dylan Alton, PS d James Green 3-1.

165: David Taylor, PS tf Tyler Koehn 5:09 (21-6).

174: Robert Kokesh, N d Matt Brown 10-7.

184: Ed Ruth, PS tf Josh Ihnen, 7:00 (18-3).

197: Quentin Wright, PS md Caleb Kolb 10-2.

285: Jon Gingrich, PS d Spencer Johnson 7-4.

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