UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Penn State Nittany Lion wrestling team (0-0, 0-0 B1G) will begin the 2015-16 season ranked No. 1 in the InterMat Tournament Power Index (TPI). Head coach Cael Sanderson’s squad, winners of four of the last five NCAA and Big Ten titles, has a wrestler ranked at all ten weights.
Penn State tops InterMat’s pre-season TPI with 105.5 points, followed by Oklahoma State at 101.5. Iowa sits in third at 75.0 with Michigan in fourth at 72.0. Penn State also tops InterMat’s Dual Meet rankings FloWrestling’s team rankings, released on October 6.
Senior Morgan McIntosh is ranked No. 1 at 197 to lead Penn State’s 10 ranked grapplers (all of whom are listed in the top 14). McIntosh is a two-time All-American and placed third at 197 a year ago, finishing with a 32-3 record. Two returning red-shirt All-Americans are ranked No. 2 at their respective weights. Senior Nico Megaludis is ranked No. 2 at 125. Megaludis is a three-time All-American, a two-time national finalist and was 31-4 two years ago. Sophomore Zain Retherford was an All-American at 141 as a true freshman two years ago, placing fifth with a 33-3 overall mark. Retherford is moving up to 149 and enters the season ranked No. 2 at his new weight.
Junior All-American Jimmy Gulibon moves up to 141 this year and begins the season ranked No. 3 at his new weight. Gulibon was an All-American at 133 last year, placing fifth and ended the year with a 26-9 record. Senior All-American Jordan Conaway also shifts to a new weight. Conaway earned his first All-America laurel with an eighth place finish at 125 last season, going 27-9 overall. He is ranked No. 8 at 133 this year (Conaway finished in the ‘round of 12’ at 133 as a red-shirt freshman in 2012-13).
Sophomore Matt McCutcheon enters the season ranked No. 13 at 184 after finishing in the ‘round of 12’ as a red-shirt freshman last season. McCutcheon went 26-14 overall. Sophomore Garett Hammond is ranked No. 14 at 165 after posting a 23-12 record a year ago.
Three red-shirt freshmen will begin the season ranked for Penn State. Jason Nolf enters the season ranked No. 7 at 157. Nolf went 15-1 during his red-shirt campaign. Nick Nevills is ranked No. 10 at 285 after posting a 10-1 mark during his red-shirt year. Bo Nickal is ranked No. 14 at 174, having gone 13-2 as a redshirt.