Two wrestlers vie for last spot in tourney lineup

And then there were two for the Penn State wrestling team.

Upperweights Ross Thatcher and Brett Calabretta -- in competition for the Nittany Lions' starting 190-pound slot -- will wrestle off in practice this week to determine Penn State's gameday lineup for the Big Ten Championships here on March 7-8.

Thatcher, a junior who has seen time at three weight classes while fighting injury this season, wrestled off against 177-pound incumbent Rob Neidlinger in practice last week. Neidlinger won handily, bumping Thatcher up a weight to face off against Calabretta at the only starting spot still in limbo for the Lions.

Penn State coach John Fritz said he used the team's weekend dual meets at Lehigh and Lock Haven to let Thatcher and Calabretta show their stuff before they went head-to-head.

Thatcher wrestled at 190 Saturday against Lock Haven -- Penn State's final dual meet of the season -- and won an electrifying 8-7 overtime decision against the Bald Eagles' Kenny Haines.

Calabretta, a sophomore wrestling at heavyweight, lost a 10-2 major decision to the Lock Haven's Ricky Krieger. Against Lehigh on Friday, Calabretta took the mat at 190 and won 10-4 against the Mountain Hawks' Glauco Lolli-Ghetti. Thatcher didn't wrestle.

"This weekend we felt that we would split the matches at 190," Fritz said. "There were times this season when we would use Rob or Brett at 190, but now that 177 is settled we felt we would split the matches between Brett and Ross."

Penn State didn't practice yesterday because of the busy weekend, but will resume today. Fritz said the 190-pound position will be settled by the end of the week.

One abnormality about the Lions' dual meet against Lehigh was the crowd noise during Penn State's 142- and 150-pound matches.

Jamarr Billman and Clint Musser, who usually rile things up with tech falls, major decisions or artsy takedowns, had to stick to the basics in winning the two middleweight bouts.

Billman, a freshman making his return to the Lehigh Valley, had to settle for a 3-2 win against the much-tougher-than-he-looks Ryan Bernholz. Musser, a junior, doubled up the Mountain Hawks' Chris Ayres 6-3.

"He slowed me down a lot," a disgusted Billman said after the win. "Lately I haven't been keeping my motion and I've been wrestling other people's matches."

Musser, however, wasn't as displeased. Ayres was the last opponent to beat Musser with an 8-5 decision at the Mat Town Tournament on Nov. 29. Musser's revenge victory was his 20th straight.

"I went out there and picked up the tempo a little bit," Musser said. "I wrestled the match more at my pace and got my own things going."

Both Billman and Musser returned to their usual games against Lock Haven. Billman racked up an impressive 11-6 rematch win against Brent Conly, who beat him at Mat Town, while Musser left Mack Rohaly on the wrong end of a 14-5 major decision.

--Back Points: Penn State 118 pounder Jeremy Hunter had quite a weekend. Hunter pinned Lehigh's Mike Sferra in five minutes and 36 seconds and put Lock Haven's Dave Emili on his back with 10 seconds left in the third period.

"Jeremy looks sharp," Fritz said. "He's keeping on the offense, and when you do that, good things happen." . . . Injured Lions John Lange (158) and Mark Janus (HWT) are expected back well before the Big Ten Championships get under way . . . Penn State closed out its dual meet season at 18-3, an accomplishment Fritz called "great, especially without any All-Americans returning."