Ranking Cael Sanderson’s top 10 wins as Penn State Wrestling coach
By Chris Snyder
No. 5
December 21, 2013
Iowa City, IA
No. 1 Penn State 24, No. 3 Iowa 12
Beating Iowa at wrestling is always going to be a challenge. Beating Iowa in Iowa City is downright impossible and is about as rare as a Penn State Men’s Basketball appearance in the NCAA Tournament.
A Cael Sanderson coached Penn State team traveled to Iowa City twice prior to the 2013 tilt, and both times the Hawkeyes were victorious. But the 2013-2014 team finally had the wrestling prodigies to possibly upend Iowa on its home mat.
The first three matches (starting at 125) saw the Nittany Lions win two decisions and the Hawkeyes earn a fall to tie up the score (6-6). Red-shirt freshman Zack Beitz 149 topped Iowa’s Michael Kelly in a bit of a shocker, however Iowa quickly answered with a decision of their own from the No. 1 ranked James Vollrath.
It seems like all of Penn State’s championship teams had a murderers row at some point in the lineup. And between No. 1 David Taylor 165, No. 3 Matt Brown 174, No. 1 Ed Ruth 184, and No. 3 Morgan McIntosh 197 they had just that in the 2013-2014 team. This group of experience Nittany Lions racked up two majors and two decisions to put Penn State up 20-9.
Finally, the Iowa City monkey was off Cael’s back. Two years later the Nittany Lions were again able to take down the Hawkeyes at home. And as last year’s loss will tell you, it’s never going to be easy.