Ranking Cael Sanderson’s top 10 wins as Penn State Wrestling coach
By Chris Snyder
No. 7
February 19, 2017
Stillwater, OK
No. 1 Penn State 27, No. 2 Oklahoma State 13
The No. 1 ranked Nittany Lions (13-0) rolled into Stillwater to take on No. 2 wrestling powerhouse Oklahoma State (14-0) late in the 2016-2017 season. The dual meet ended up featuring 18 ranked wrestlers and 7 matchups where top 10 wrestlers squared off against one another.
This is what the experts called a solid, to quite solid tune-up for the upcoming B1G Championships.
Penn State started off in a 13-0 hole as Nick Suriano 125 had an injury default loss, George Carpenter 133 lost a major decision, and No. 10 Jimmy Gulibon 141 lost a tough decision to No. 1 Dean Heil.
No problem.
The buzzsaw of No. 1 Zain Retherford 149, No. 1 Jason Nolf 157, No. 4 Vincenzo Joseph 165, No. 7 Mark Hall 174, No. 2 Bo Nickal 184, No. 9 Matt McCutheon 197, and No. 3 Nick Nevills accounted for 27 unanswered points. Nolf got a tech fall against No. 6 Joe Smith, Joseph scored a major decision over No. 8 Chandler Rogers, and Nickal pinned No. 4 Nolan Boyd.
What a lineup. And at this point in the Sanderson era at Penn State, this was simply routine.