Ranking Cael Sanderson’s top 10 wins as Penn State Wrestling coach
By Chris Snyder
No. 8
December 8, 2013
University Park, PA (BJC)
No. 23 Pittsburgh 9, No. 2 Penn State 28
Coming off winning three straight NCAA Championships in 2011, 2012, and 2013, the Nittany Lions’ wrestling program was humming.
Sanderson was bringing in top recruit after top recruit and the wrestling dynasty wasn’t showing any signs of slowing down.
So, the Penn State Athletics Department decided to schedule in-state rival Pitt for a dual meet at the Bryce Jordan Center. Even with a developing snow storm, the Nittany Lion faithful showed up in droves and set the all-time NCAA record for a dual meet attendance as well as the Penn State Athletics record for an event in the Bryce Jordan Center (15,996).
The atmosphere was electric, and the packed house was greeted by yet another dominating performance aided by victories from Nico Megaludis 125, true freshman Zain Retherford 141, David Taylor 165, and Matt Brown 174.
No. 9 Andrew Alton 149, No. 5 Dylan Alton 157, and No. 1 Ed Ruth 184 were not able to wrestle in the dual due to various reasons. Had they wrestled, this would probably have been a shutout.
This dual isn’t on the list due to nail biting matches. It’s on the list because it started the yearly tradition of scheduling huge dual meets against top ranked opponents and seeing how many humans could be sardined into the cavernous halls of the BJC.
Setting an NCAA record has to count for something, right?