Penn State Wrestling: Ranking all 10 NCAA Championship Teams

No. 1 – 2017

Dual Record: 14-0

Conference Champions: 2
149 Zain Retherford
157 Jason Nolf

All-Americans: 6
149 Zain Retherford
157 Jason Nolf
165 Vincenzo Joseph
174 Mark Hall
184 Bo Nickal
285 Nick Nevills

NCAA Champions: 5
149 Zain Retherford
157 Jason Nolf
165 Vincenzo Joseph
174 Mark Hall
184 Bo Nickal

NCAA Final Team Standings
1. Penn State 146.5
2. Ohio State 110.0
3. Oklahoma State 103.0

Dan Hodge Trophy
Zain Retherford – winner
Jason Nolf – finalist

Here is the perfect spot to hit everyone in the face with a dump truck full of stats.

As a team, the 2021-2022 Nittany Lions had a total of 21 falls on the year. Not an incredibly high number but it’s also not terrible.

Well, both Zain Retherford and Jason Nolf each had 17 pins on the season in 2016-2017. Yes, 17.

And between Retherford, Nolf, Hall, and Nickal that year’s team had 60 total falls. The team as a whole pinned 90 opponents. That’s more than four times the amount the incredible 2021-2022 squad had.

Do you like bonus points?

Check out what Nickal, Nolf, and Retherford did in the NCAA Tournament in 2017.

Bo Nickal
Opening round – technical fall 15-0
Round of 16 – fall 5:33
Quarterfinals – fall 4:33
Semifinals – fall 1:01
Finals – decision 4-3

Jason Nolf
Opening round – technical fall 22-7
Round of 16 – technical fall 24-9
Quarterfinals – fall 4:06
Semifinals – major decision 13-5
Finals – major decision 14-6

Zain Retherford
Opening round – technical fall 18-2
Round of 16 – technical fall 16-0
Quarterfinals – technical fall 18-2
Semifinals – fall 2:36
Finals – technical fall 18-2

That’s a total of 15 matches where 14 ended with bonus points for Penn State. And of the 14 bonus point matches an unbelievable 12 resulted in either a technical fall or pin.

It’s rare to see wrestlers earn bonus points in the later rounds of the NCAAs. It’s even more bonkers to have Jason Nolf bonus-point his way through the entire tournament.

Which makes Zain Retherford’s performance in the 2017 NCAA’s otherworldly. You do not, and I repeat “DO NOT“, see NCAA finals matches ending in technical falls.

In the finals at 149, Zain made the No. 3 seed Lavion Mayes (Missouri) look like a scrub from Maryland’s wrestling team. In the finals!!

And I’m sorry to say this, but there isn’t a single guy from the 2021-2022 team who came close to doing what Nolf, Nickal, and Retherford did that season.

This team was Penn State’s first five-for-five team in the NCAA finals. They set the record for the most points scored in Penn State history in the NCAA Championships with 146.5.

And they are the greatest team fans in Happy Valley have ever seen.

So far …