Red-shirt junior Mark McKnight (McDonald, Pa.), wrestling unattached, won his first four matches at 125 to advance to the finals, where he downed Franklin Gomez of Michigan State (unattached), 6-4, to claim the crown. Freshman Brad Pataky (Clearfield, Pa.) lost in the quarterfinals, but wrestled back well enough to place sixth, going 5-2 on the day.
At 133, Bryan Heller (Fair Haven, N.J.) won four straight before dropping a 9-6 decision to Penn's Matt Eveleth in the semifinals. Heller would claim third place in the tourney with a 4-2 record.
Freshman Philip Bomberger (Port Royal, Pa.) won five straight, including a hard fought 3-1 OT win over unattached teammate Jeremy Hart (State College, Pa.), to set up an all Penn State title showdown at 165. True freshman David Erwin (Urbana, Ohio), wrestling unattached, also won his first five, including a pin of Davidson's Trevor Clavette in the semis. The title bout saw Erwin down Bomberger with an 11-3 major to claim the championship. Erwin went 6-0, Bomberger went 5-1 and Hart would go on to place third (going 5-1), giving Penn State the top three spots at 165 with a combined record of 16-2.
Going 1-2 on the day were two unattached Nittany Lions. Dan Vallimont (Lake Hopatcong, N.J.) went 1-2 at 149 while Brendan Herlihy (Fairfield, Conn.) was 1-2 at HWT. Sophomore Jack Decker (Roseland, N.J.), unattached at 165, went 3-2 with two pins. Sophomore Chad Unger (Perry, Ohio) advanced to the quarterfinals at 184 before dropping two straight and finishing 3-2, unattached.
Freshman Joe Farina (Denville, N.J.) and junior Aaron Anspach (Columbia, Pa.) both advanced to the quarterfinals at HWT before losing two straight. Farina, unattached, went 2-2 on the day as did Anspach, wrestling attached.
Other Penn State wrestlers bowing out early included Brian Cantalupi (Carlisle, Pa.) at 165 and Mark Friend (Libertyville, Ill.) at 157. Both were attached and went 1-0. Unattached grapplers who went 0-1 were Rohan Murphy (Long Island, N.Y.) at 125, Ben Mandelbraut (Sharon, Mass.) at 141, Odis Johnson (Philadelphia, Pa.) at 165, Mike Ward (Mayfield, Ohio) at 184, David Klug (Pennington, N.J.) at 184 and Andrew Haile (Crabtree, Pa.) at 184.
Navy's Joe Baker, wrestling unattached at 133, won the 133-pound title with a 7-4 win over Penn's Eveleth. Baker was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Wrestler. Other title winners were Andy Simmons of Michigan State at 141, Brent Metcalf of Virginia Tech (unattached) at 149, Matt Kocher of Pitt (unattached) at 157, R.J. Boudro of Michigan State at 174, Rocco Caponi of Virginia at 184, Matt Cassidy of Lehigh at 197 and Spencer Nadolsky of North Carolina at HWT. Frances Baughan of Army won the Most Falls in Least Amount of Time award. The 133-pounder recorded four pins in 10:04.
Penn State had six wrestlers attached in the event, with the sextet combining to go 17-8 overall, three of whom placed. All 20 of Penn State's grapplers (attached and unattached), combined to go 43-25, with two title winners and six total place winners (places were awarded through sixth).
The Nittany Lions return to action this coming weekend with a two-dual road trip against two nationally ranked opponents. No. 13 Penn State will face No. 23 Navy on Friday at 7 p.m. and then tackle No. 25 Penn on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. The Nittany Lions are 3-2 overall in duals.
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