Penn State Wrestling Comes to Bakersfield
CSUB wrestler looks to set up a take down.
By Michael Clites
Penn State traveled across the country for a meet with Cal State. The overmatched Roadrunners fought hard throughout the duel, but the Nittany Lions proved why they are the number one team in the country. With All-American coach Cael Sanders in their corner, the Penn State Nittany Lions truly dominated every match they wrestled in.
The first two matches were won by Penn State in a majority decision. Following those was the pinning of Bakersfield native, CIF State Champion, Coleman Hammond. This was Hammond’s first time being pinned this season as he went against the number four ranked wrestler in the country, Zain Retherford.
As more matches went completed, and more points were racked up by the Penn State team. As the night was beginning to be wrapped up, the Roadrunners only had a few more matches to try and get just one point on the score sheet. But this would prove to be difficult as one of the final matches was against number one ranked Morgan McIntosh at 197 lbs. McIntosh has never once been taken down in his NCAA career and looked to remain perfect against CSUB’s Reuben Franklin. Doing so, the match was won by McIntosh in decision with a final score of 12-3.
The score was 35-0, with Penn State leading by the time it was the heavyweight’s turn to take the mat. CSUB’s Matt Williams faced Penn States Jan Johnson in this heavy bout, knowing his team desperately needed some points to avoid being shutout in their own house. This wouldn’t be an easy task, but in the end, Williams got it done. Matt Williams scored points with riding time and escaping his opponent. The final score for the bout would be 4-0, Williams.
Although avoiding a shutout, the CSUB wrestling team was simply out wrestled the whole night, only getting one takedown against the entire Nittany Lions team. A learning experience indeed for Cal State’s wrestler.