NEW YORK, N.Y. – The Penn State Nittany Lion wrestling team will be well represented at 2016 U.S. Olympic Team Trials, held in Iowa City, Iowa, on Saturday and Sunday. Penn State national champions Nico Megaludis and Zain Retherford will compete along with a number of other Nittany Lion NCAA champions and members of the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club.
Megaludis will compete at 57 kilograms while Retherford competes at 65kg. Each wrester, competing by virtue of winning the NCAA championship at their respective weights, takes part in the challenge tournament. Retherford’s is Saturday and Megaludis’ is Sunday.
Former Nittany Lion NCAA champion and current assistant coach Frank Molinaro and former NCAA champion David Taylor will join Olympic gold medalist Jake Varner and Eric Thompson in representing the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club. Molinaro is competing at 65 kilograms, Taylor at 86 kilograms, Varner at 97 kilograms and Thompson at 125 kilograms. Former Penn State champion Ed Ruth, training out of the Sunkist Wrestling Club, is also competing at 86 kilograms.
The two day event takes place in Carver Hawkeye Arena on Saturday and Sunday, April 9-10. Each day has two sessions, with the challenge tournament beginning at 9 a.m., and the championship finals beginning at 6 p.m. The winners of each challenge tournament will face each weight class’ top seed in a best of three scenarios to determine the United States’ representative in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.