More than 4,000 eager wrestling fans found their way into Rec Hall Sunday for Cael Sanderson's home dual debut against Bloomsburg.
The new coach, and his team, did their best not to disappoint.
Behind No. 5 Cyler Sanderson's thrilling 3-2 decision over No. 2 Matt Moley at 157 pounds, Clay Steadman's late comeback at 197 pounds and No. 20 Cameron Wade's pin at heavyweight, the Nittany Lions earned a 23-15 victory over the Huskies.
With the win, Penn State (1-1) evened its record following Friday's season-opening loss at Lehigh.
Wade, coming off a hard-fought 5-2 loss to Lehigh's No. 6 Zach Rey, worked Zach Walsh early for a pair of near fall points and led 4-1 after one period.
Walsh chose the down position to start the middle period, but Wade stuffed the Husky at every turn, denying any escape. Wade then was able to put Walsh on his side, but even as the referee started to count for near fall points, the redshirt sophomore pushed Walsh to his back and got the pin with 18 seconds left in the period.
"He showed a lot of patience and just determination to get where he wanted to be on top, and once he had it he's got a good chance of pinning his guy," Cael Sanderson said. "And we needed that, we needed him to go out there and finish this dual meet with a fall."
Prior to Wade's pin, Steadman put the Lions in the lead with a gutty 3-1 decision of Jake Dabishinsky. Trailing 1-0 on Dabishinsky's second-period escape, it took Steadman more than a minute of the third period to escape the Husky.
The crowd of 4,063 hollered for a stall warning on the Husky several times, and finally got it when all the Bloomsburg grappler could grasp was Steadman's ankle.
"When he got low on my leg I turned into him, which is what I used to do," Steadman said. "Then I just remembered what Cael told us, to just keep kicking away. I got a good stall call out of it. I thought it was a perfect call."
After the stall was called, Steadman quickly escaped to tie the bout, then brought Dabishinsky to the ground and rode out for the win and the lead in the dual.
After the big win at 197, Steadman's "good buddy," as he called Wade, was raring to go.
"It really got my adrenaline flowing before my match, maybe a little more than I should have," Wade said. "...That was awesome to see Clay get a win, especially like that coming down to the end, him using his conditioning and taking him down."
