Wrestling notebook: Penn State's Bo Nickal wins Clarion Open title
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By Jim Carlson | Special to PennLive
on November 03, 2014 at 11:45 AM, updated November 03, 2014 at 11:47 AM
Competitive open tournaments and a handful of dual meets kicked off the college wrestling season over the weekend.
Let's take a look at some of the highlights:
CLARION OPEN: Penn State freshman Bo Nickal, from Allen, Texas, debuted unattached at 174 pounds and won 6-4, 3-2, and 11-2 matches before defeating Nick Mitchell of Edinboro 3-2 in the finals.
"Well it was ugly but I got the win,'' Nickal tweeted out on Sunday. "Lots of improvements to be made. Excited to start fresh Monday and get better.''
Penn State freshmen Jason Nolf and Nick Nevills did not compete.
With teams such as Edinboro, Lehigh and Utah Valley University represented, the field at Clarion was solid.
Edinboro's No. 2-ranked Mitchell Port (141) was supposed to wrestle Ohio State's Logan Stieber in the All-Star Classic on Saturday. Doctors ruled out Stieber at weigh-ins for unspecified reasons, so Port took off across the state and won five matches at Clarion.
He won 11-4 over Will Koll, son of Cornell coach Rob Koll and representing the Finger Lakes Wrestling Club while likely redshirting in his freshman season at Cornell. Port won a 9-6 decision over Clarion freshman Brock Zacherl of Brookville in the finals.
Rutgers' Tyson Dippery, from Central Dauphin, was injured in the semifinals against Zacherl and medically forfeited out.
Edinboro's David Habat (149), Austin Matthews (157) and Vic Avery (184) won titles. Matthews transferred from Clarion and beat Cal Poly's Colt Shorts (Canon-McMillan) in the finals.
MICHIGAN STATE OPEN: Four Ohio State wrestlers won titles here, including freshman Kyle Snyder at 197.
Nathan Tomasello (125), Josh Demas (157) and Bo Jordan (165) joined Snyder as titlists. Jordan knocked off Michigan's Taylor Massa 4-1 in the finals. Kenny Courts (184) of Central Dauphin did not compete for the Buckeyes.
Michigan's Adam Coon took the heavyweight crown. Joey Davis of Notre Dame College in Division II won the 184-pound crown, downing Purdue's Patrick Kissell in the finals, 3-2, after four easy victories.
RUTGERS DUALS: The Scarlet Knights went 3-0 and that included a 38-6 victory over Delaware Valley, ranked fourth in Division III. There were just two close bouts, including a 5-4 win by Rutgers' Ken Theobold at 149 over Vinny Fava, ranked No. 1 in Division III.
No. 14 PITT 35, BLOOMSBURG 3: Pitt won four bonus-point matches against the graduation-ravaged Huskies, giving second-year Pitt coach and Hershey High graduate Jason Peters his first win of the year.
Pitt stars Nick Zannetta (133), Mikey Racciato (149), Ronnie Garbinsky (157), Max Thomusseit (184) and Nick Bonaccorsi (197) notched wins for the Panthers.
PIAA champ John Rizzo of Richland won at heavyweight for the Panthers, who host a huge early season match on Thursday against Edinboro.
NWCA ALL-STAR CLASSIC: The stars were out in the main event, but things didn't go well for two former midstate wrestlers who wrestled on the undercard.
Ryan Diehl of Trinity, now wrestling for Liberty, lost 10-7 to Jordan Laster of Princeton at 149. Clint Morrison of Cedar Cliff, wrestling for Rider, lost a technical fall to Lorenzo Thomas of Penn at 197.
Here are results from the Classic (which next year will be held in Atlanta):
165: Alex Dieringer (Oklahoma State) dec. Nick Sulzer (Virginia) 4-2.
174: Robert Kokesh (Nebraska) dec. Brock Gutches (Southern Oregon) 8-2.
184: Gabe Dean (Cornell) dec. Jack Dechow (Old Dominion) 5-2.
197: Scott Schiller (Minnesota) dec. J'den Cox (Missouri) 5-3 SV.
285: Mike McMullan (Northwestern) dec. Nick Gwiazdowski (N.C. State) 8-4.
125: Alan Waters (Missouri) dec. Joey Dance (Virginia Tech) 4-3.
149: Jason Tsirtsis (Northwestern) dec. Josh Kindig (Oklahoma State) 4-1.
157: James Green (Nebraska) dec. Ian Miller (Kent State) 6-4.
133: A.J. Schopp (Edinboro) dec. Mason Beckman (Lehigh) 4-2.
141: No Match.
MESSIAH OPEN: As expected, the host Falcons, ranked No. 2 in Division III, ran away with their own event, outscoring Liberty 137-104.5. Wheaton College was third with 74.5 points.
Lucas Malmberg (125), Kaleb Loht (141), Chris Williamson (149) and Josh Thomson (174) earned titles.
Messiah's Larry Cannon at 157 dropped a 6-4 decision to top-ranked Nick Carr of Washington & Jefferson in the finals.
Juniata High grad Derek Beitz placed third for Messiah at 165. Jeremy Bailes was third at 184, Jason Wright second at 197 and Nick Havener second at heavyweight.
HIGH SCHOOL SUPER 32: Five Pennsylvania high school wrestlers – four from the WPIAL in Pittsburgh -- won matches at one of the elite scholastic competitions, the Super 32 at Greensboro, N.C.
Franklin Regional's Spencer Lee, the nation's top-ranked sophomore, recorded a 26-second falls at 113 pounds. Luke Pletcher of Latrobe won at 132 and Sam Krivus (138) of Hempfield won his third Super 32 crown.
Michael Kemerer (145) of Franklin Regional and Andrew Dunn (heavyweight) of Bethlehem Catholic also won.