UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- No. 1 Penn State (16-0, 9-0) took care of No. 2 Oklahoma State (13-3) on Sunday to win the 2016 NWCA National Dual Championship Series title. Head coach Cael Sanderson's squad took down the Cowboys 29-18 in front of yet another sold out Rec Hall crowd.
The NWCA dual crown is the third different championship won by Penn State to date this season: the team won its sixth straight Southern Scuffle title on Jan. 1-2 and a share of the 2016 Big Ten regular season title (shared with Iowa, Penn State's third such championship). The dual was wrestled in front of 6,575 fans, the 29th straight Rec Hall sell-out and the 32nd of 33 including the Bryce Jordan Center.
Three seniors wrestled in their final dual meets in Rec Hall and the dual meet began with two of them. Senior Nico Megaludis, ranked No. 4 at 125, brought the standing room only crowd to its feet with a pin in his final match in Rec Hall. Megaludis pinned No. 6 Eddie Klimara at the 3:58 mark to give Penn State an early 6-0 lead. Senior Jordan Conaway, ranked No. 5 at 133, added to the Lion lead with a strong win in his final Rec Hall match. Conaway controlled Gary Wayne Harding, rolling to an 8-4 win with 2:03 in riding time.
Junior Jimmy Gulibon lost a spirited and hard-fought 9-5 decision to No. 1 Dean Heil at 141 as Oklahoma State cut Penn State's lead to 9-3. Sophomore Zain Retherford, ranked No. 1 at 149, dominated No. 12 Anthony Collica, rolling up 2:35 in riding time on his way to a strong 4-1 win. Red-shirt freshman Jason Nolf, ranked No. 1 at 157, sent Penn State into the intermission on a high note, hitting a standing cradle to pin Ryan Blees at the 6:32 mark in the third period (Nolf was up 21-8 at the time). Penn State led 18-3 heading into the halftime break.
Junior Geno Morelli dropped a 17-2 technical fall to No. 1 Alex Dieringer at 165 as the Cowboys cut Penn State's lead to 18-8. Red-shirt freshman Bo Nickal, ranked No. 1 at 174, answered immediately however, rolling to an identical 17-2 technical fall, this one at the 4:39 mark to put Penn State up 23-8. Sophomore Matt McCutcheon (Apollo, Pa.), ranked No. 6 at 184, was leading 1 to No. 13 Nolan Boyd when he was injured on an illegal hold (pulling McCutcheon's knee brace). After an extended injury time, McCutcheon tried to continue but was injured once again on the next flurry and lost by injury default at the 3:38 mark.
Senior Morgan McIntosh, ranked No. 1 at 197, closed out his Rec Hall career in rousing fashion, getting a quick first period pin (1:59) of Andrew Marsden to put Penn State up 29-14 and clinch the NWCA dual meet title. With red-shirt freshman Nick Nevills, ranked No. 16 at 285, sent to the U.S. Collegiate Championships at Air Force to get more matches under his belt, true freshman Jan Johnson stepped up at 285 and dropped a hard-fought 18-6 major to No. 5 Austin Marsden. Johnson notched a reversal and two takedowns late in the match but his comeback efforts were not enough.
The Nittany Lions end the regular season with a perfect 16-0 mark, 9-0 in the Big Ten. Oklahoma State ends its dual season with a 13-3 record. The 16 dual meet victories are the most since Penn State won 17 in 2011 (going 17-1-1). The perfect 16-0 record marks the first time since 1972 that a Penn State team wrestling ten or matches has gone through the season unblemished (no losses or ties). Penn State went 12-0 in 1972. The 2015-16 Penn State squad has already gone 9-0 in conference duals, only the second-ever Penn State team to run through the conference schedule unblemished. Penn State went 6-0 in 1997-98 and 5-0-1 in 1992-93. The nine dual victories is also a school record for Big Ten dual wins in a single season.
Penn State posted a 24-14 takedown advantage and rolled up 11 bonus points off three pins (Megaludis, Nolf, McIntosh) and a technical fall (Nickal). Wrapping up their final dual meets as Nittany Lions, Penn State's three starting seniors head to their final post-season with outstanding career records. Conaway is 83-27 after today, Megaludis 111-18 and McIntosh 106-18. McIntosh ends his Penn State career with 53 dual meet victories, 12th all-time. Megaludis ends his with 52, 14th all-time. Conaway collected 42 dual meet wins during his Lion career. Each of the senior trio has already earned All-America honors (Conaway once, McIntosh twice, Megaludis three times).
Penn State will head to Iowa City, Iowa, for the 2016 Big Ten Wrestling Championships at the University of Iowa on March 5-6. The event, in Iowa's Carver-Hawkeye Arena, begins on Saturday with an 11 a.m. session and a 7 p.m. session (Eastern). The championship, serving as the NCAA qualifier for the conference, concludes on Sunday with a 1 p.m. session (Eastern).