Grapplers annihilate Panthers, Hoosiers

Match after match this season, without reference to the outcome, coaches and members of the Penn State wrestling team have stated the team as a whole did not wrestle to its full potential.

Saturday was the second.

The No. 4 Lions, looking like the national championship team they believe they are, captured nine matches en route to a 37-6 shellacking of No. 19 Indiana. The victory completed a weekend sweep that began Friday with a 28-9 spanking of No. 25 Pittsburgh.

"We keep saying we haven't had all 10 wrestling at their very best yet," Lion coach John Fritz said, "and I think this afternoon was pretty close to that."

The only class in which the Hoosiers were able to put some points on the board was the 142-pound division that pitted No. 2 Roger Chandler of Indiana against No. 8 Clint Musser. In what was supposed to be the highlight match of the day, Chandler pinned Musser two minutes into the match for his eighth fall of the year.

"Chandler came out there and just took it to Clint right away," Fritz said.

Three Lions -- Jason Betz (126), Biff Walizer (134) and John Lange (158) -- were able to rebound from their losses against the Panthers, the only classes Penn State was unable to take from Pittsburgh. Both Walizer and Lange registered falls in their matches.

Walizer did not waste any time in his match, pinning Hoosier Trevor Elliott 1:27 into the first period. Lange took a little longer, getting the fall 5:43 into the bout. He, too, looked to have a quick match, as he registered three back points just over two minutes into the first period.

The wins were also important because both wrestlers are coming off injuries. Walizer, now 9-7, hurt his elbow early in the season, which may be contributing to his struggles and his drop out of the polls from his No. 8 preseason ranking.

Lange upped his record to 18-3, though he is wrestling with torn cartilage in his knee that kept him out of the national duals. Lange, competing at 158 because of Brian Romesburg's knee injury, had his leg wrapped in a way that looked like he was wearing long underwear.

"The knee is not going to get any better," Lange said. "My conditioning isn't there, and I can't shoot the way I want to."

Lange said since the injury has forced him to wrestle more defensively, his positioning is better. He also added he does not know whether he will wrestle at 150 or 158 for the rest of the season.

He and the coaches must make a decision before the next match because of an NCAA rule change for this season that states a wrestler must compete at a certain weight for 75 percent of the weigh-ins.

Freshmen Jeremy Hunter and Shad Benton were both 2-0 on the weekend. Hunter is now 22-6, and Benton is 13-6.

"There's two true freshmen out there," Fritz said. "It's great."

The Lions were perfect in the upper weights as Glenn Pritzlaff (167), Frank Morici (177), Rob Neidlinger (190) and Kerry McCoy (heavyweight) began where they left off at the national duals.

The biggest threat to Pritzlaff's No. 2 ranking came from Pittsburgh's All-American John Withrow, ranked No. 8 in the class. Pritzlaff was leading 1-0 going into the third period then took control of the match. He registered a takedown just over the midpoint of the period and rode Withrow much of the rest of the match to get the 4-1 decision with riding time.

With his 8-4 win over Indiana's Dennis Fadeski, Pritzlaff improved to 27-1.

McCoy registered a fall against Panther Matt Mueller and a 5-2 victory over No. 9 Ben Nachtrieb of Indiana. McCoy entered the second period down 2-0 after Nachtrieb took him down 2:50 into the match. But McCoy, the No. 1 heavyweight in the country, was not worried.

"A match is seven minutes long," McCoy said. "I don't think anyone in the country can go seven minutes with me."

McCoy, 26-0 on the season and a finalist for the Hodge Award, presented to the outstanding wrestler by W.I.N. Magazine, has improved his dual-meet unbeaten streak to 52 matches and has won 116 of his last 117 collegiate matches.