No. 1 Penn State 22, No. 25 Lehigh 12
BETHLEHEM, Pa. -- No. 1 Penn State continued its season opening dual weekend with another road victory, this time a thrilling 22-12 win at Lehigh. Wrestling without four ranked wrestlers, head coach Cael Sanderson's team won six bouts while senior David Taylor notched his 100th career bonus point win.
Junior All-American Nico Megaludis, ranked No. 3 at 125, got Penn State off to a hot start, notching a dominating 19-4 technical fall over Lehigh's Darian Cruz at the 6:48 mark. Penn State freshman Jimmy Gulibon, ranked No. 16 at 133, made his Penn State dual meet debut against No. 6 Mason Beckman of Lehigh and nearly knocked off the Hawk, dropping a 7-6 decision on riding time.
True freshman Zain Retherford continued his hot start to the season, rolling to a 10-4 win over Lehigh's Laike Gardner at 141 to put Penn State up 8-3. Another Lion freshman, Zack Beitz made his dual debut at 141, taking on No. 19 Mitch Minotti at 149. Like Gulibon, Beitz was strong as the third straight Nittany Lion freshman thrilled the Penn State faithful with a near upset, only to lose a close 4-3 decision. Lehigh's Joey Napoli, ranked No. 10 at 157, also needed riding time to hold off the efforts of Lion senior James Vollrath. The bonus point gave Napoli a 4-3 win and put the Mountain Hawks up 9-8 at halftime.
Penn State iced the dual at 197 as sophomore Morgan McIntosh, ranked No. 4, notched a 10-2 major over Lehigh's John Bolich. Junior Jon Gingrich capped off the strong team win with a 5-2 upset of No. 19 Doug Vollaro at heavyweight. The win gave Penn State the 22-12 victory.
No. 3 Oklahoma State 40, Bucknell 6
STILLWATER, Okla. -- Oklahoma State started the 2013-2014 season off with a bang, picking up six bonus-point wins in a 40-6 win against Bucknell on Sunday in Gallagher-Iba Arena.
The Cowboys looked good from start to finish, with sophomore Eddie Klimara earning a pin over Paul Petrov in 3:21 to start the dual and the season.
At 133 pounds, senior and third-ranked Jon Morrison began his final season with a 13-3 major decision over Grim Gonzalez to put the Pokes up, 10-0.
Josh Kindig made his first varsity appearance since the 2011-12 season on Sunday, defeating Alex Pellicciotti, 8-2.
The Cowboys picked up four consecutive bonus-point wins, starting at 157 pounds.
No. 2 Alex Dieringer dominated, scoring a quick takedown over Logan Kerin and finishing off the match with a fall in 26 seconds.
Second-ranked 165-pounder Tyler Caldwell took down Rustin Barrick seven times en route to a 16-5 major decision.
Chris Perry, reigning national champion at 174 pounds, turned his opponent five times to earn a 17-1 technical fall in less than four minutes.
No. 8 Virginia Tech 30, American 9
No. 8 Virginia Tech 59, Manchester 0
BLACKSBURG, Va. -- Head coach Kevin Dresser picked up his 100th career win as eighth-ranked Virginia Tech downed American 30-9 and Manchester 59-0 Sunday evening inside Cassell Coliseum to improve to 7-0 on the season.
Freshman Joey Dance got the first bout started off on the right foot at 125 pounds, upsetting 12th-ranked David Terao 3-1 in the tiebreaker. In the first 30-second tiebreaker, Dance rode Terao for the whole 30 seconds and then got a reversal with 5 seconds left to pick up the win. Erik Spjut dropped a 2-1 decision in the first tiebreaker to Esteban Gomez-Ramirez to tie up the match, but the Hokies then went on a six-match win streak to quickly put it away.
Gerald Ronnau made his varsity debut at 141 pounds and it was a successful one as he picked up a first-period pin of Matthew Crockett. Devin Carter, ranked third in the country at 141 pounds, bumped up to 149 pounds and didn’t miss a beat, pinning Mark Cirello at the 3:31 mark for his fifth pin in sixth matches this season. Sal Mastriani jumped out to a big lead on John Boyle at 157 pounds, but had to get a reversal with 2 seconds left to pull out the 10-8 win. Chris Moon rolled at 165, picking up a 10-5 win over Marcos Peralta. Austin Gabel took care of business at 174 pounds, earning a 10-3 win over Keithen Cast at 174 pounds before Nick Vetterlein eased to an 8-4 win over Jason Grimes at 184 pounds.
At 197 pounds, Chris Penny gave 12th-ranked Daniel Mitchell all he wanted and was trailing just 8-6 with under a minute left. Penny shot in on Mitchell and had a chance, but got into a bad position and Mitchell got the quick pin with just 26 seconds left. Ty Walz continued his torrid start to the season, picking up his second win of the weekend over a ranked opponent. The freshman heavyweight got two takedowns on No. 15 Blake Herrin and held off a late attack to pick up the big 6-5 victory.
In the second match, the Hokies blanked Division III Manchester 59-0. Tech picked up eight pins and a forfeit win to move to 7-0. Ronnau picked up his second pin of the day and Carter again pinned his opponent, giving him six pins in seven matches this season. The fall gave him 28 for his career, moving him into fourth place all-time at Tech for career pins (Sean Gray, 45). Chad Strube picked up a pin in his lone action of the day. Manchester is coached by former Hokie wrestler Matt Burlingame.
With the wins, Tech head coach Kevin Dresser picked up his 100th coaching victory. He becomes the third Tech coach to reach the century mark in terms of coaching wins, joining Jerry Cheynet (188 wins; 1974-96) while Frank Teske had 122 wins from 1951-74. he currently sits at 100-41 in eight seasons.
