With its third-place finish at the Big Ten Championships there are heightened expectations for the Penn State wrestling team as it travels to St. Louis for the NCAA Championships.
The two members of the Nittany Lion squad who garnered the most attention during the conference tournament, 141-pound Big Ten champion Scott Moore and Big Ten Coach of the Year Troy Sunderland, will lead the team to Missouri with hopes of meeting those expectations.
Moore, a junior who qualified for the NCAA championships twice before this season, talked about the difference between this year's campaign and his previous treks into the tournament. More self-confidence will have a role in how Moore places at the tournament this year.
"I think this year I'm more confident," Moore said. "Last year, going into the tournament I doubted my size a little bit."
Moore entered last year's tournament after a 2-2 showing at the Big Ten tournament. Entering the tournament with the Big Ten title makes Moore a marked man.
During the NCAA tournament, Moore will have to grapple with many wrestlers he has not faced yet in his career.
Moore has no qualms against facing wrestlers he has never battled with before.
"I think it's an advantage," Moore said. "I'd rather wrestle somebody for the first time than wrestle somebody two or three times."
Moore entered the 2003 Big Ten tournament as the conference's No. 2 seed. Beating Michigan's Clark Forward and Minnesota's Derek Phillips, Moore put himself in conference final against Indiana's Coyte Cooper. He defeated Cooper 8-5 to win the 141-pound Big Ten Championships.
With his win over Cooper, Moore broke Kerry McCoy's single-season win record. Moore will enter the NCAA tournament with a 48-7 record.
Because of his two years' experience at nationals, Moore will be looked at to help senior 197-pounder Ryan Cummins and freshman 149-pounder Nathan Galloway.
Moore said one of the differences between nationals and regular season competition is that officials at the NCAA tournament will call stalling on wrestlers more frequently than during the regular season.
Sunderland, who won the Coach of the Year award for his team's surprising third-place finish in the conference, said he wants the Lions to understand the importance of conditioning and concentration at nationals.
Sunderland said the wrestlers need to concentrate on the action on the mat
and be prepared to wrestle the full seven minutes of a match while being resilient enough to wrestle more than one match a day for three straight days.
Sunderland admitted that the success from last weekend was gratifying because this team includes wrestlers his coaching staff assembled and worked with for the last five years. He was quick to defer his recent recognition to the other members of his coaching staff.
"It's not just me putting the team together," Sunderland said. "We have a coaching staff and everyone does their part."
Along with the team's improved confidence, Sunderland and Moore could lead the Lions to exceed expectations again this weekend.
"If the same team that showed up during the Big Ten championships shows up for the NCAA Championships we'll have eight All-Americans," Sunderland said.
