UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- No. 1 Penn State (13-0, 9-0) heads to Stillwater, Oklahoma, to take on No. 2 Oklahoma State (14-0, 6-0) in the NWCA Dual Championship Series title event. Rankings listed are InterMat Tournament Power Index. The match will take place in Gallagher-Iba Arena at 4 p.m. ET/ 3 p.m. CT , with the winner being declared the 2017 NWCA Dual Meet Champion.
The dual meet could feature 19 ranked wrestlers. Penn State, winners of 30 straight dual meets dating back to the end of the 2014-15 season, won the 2016 NWCA Dual Championship title by virtue of a 29-18 win over Oklahoma State last February in Rec Hall. Penn State is coming off two dual victories last weekend, downing No. 11 Illinois 34-7 on Friday and Maryland 45-6 on Sunday. The Lions improved to 13-0 overall and ended their Big Ten dual slate with a second straight 9-0 record which earned them their second straight Big Ten Regular Season (dual meet) title.
Penn State features a very young line-up, with seven underclassmen in its starting rotation. True freshman Nick Suriano is 16-1 and ranked No. 2 at 125. Sophomore George Carpenter is 1-11 and red-shirt freshman Triston Law is 0-2 at 133. The lone senior in Penn State’s starting line-up, Jimmy Gulibon, is 13-6 and ranked No. 10 at 141. Junior Zain Retherford is 18-0 and No. 1 at 149. Sophomore Jason Nolf is 18-0 and ranked No. 1 at 157. Red-shirt freshman Vincenzo Joseph is 13-3 and No. 4 at 165. True freshman Mark Hall, one of two true freshmen in the Lion line-up, is 23-2 and No. 7 at 174. Sophomore Bo Nickal is 17-0 and ranked No. 2 at 184. Junior Matt McCutcheon is 14-3 and No. 9 at 197. Sophomore Nick Nevills is 15-2 and ranked No. 3 at 285.
Oklahoma State’s veteran line-up could feature four seniors and a junior. The Cowboys are coming off a resounding 37-3 win over Oklahoma last weekend in Gallagher-Iba Arena. All ten of OSU’s potential starters are ranked by InterMat. Freshman Nick Piccininni is 18-6 and ranked No. 11 at 125. Freshman Kaid Brock is 22-1 and No. 3 at 133. Junior Dean Heil is 23-0 and ranked No. 1 at 141. Senior Anthony Collica is 17-1 and ranked No. 2 at 149. Sophomore Joe Smith is 8-3 and ranked No. 6 at 157. Sophomore Chandler Rogers is 17-4 and No. 8 at 165. Senior Kyle Crutchmer is 15-4 and ranked No. 9 at 174. Senior Nolan Boyd is 18-3 and No. 4 at 184. Sophomore Preston Weigel is 15-4 and No. 8 at 197. Senior Austin Schafer is 18-1 and No. 6 at 285.
Oklahoma State owns a 13-7-1 lead in the all-time series. Penn State won last year’s NWCA Dual Championship title with a 29-18 victory over the Cowboys in Rec Hall on Feb. 21, 2016. The Cowboys won the last meeting in Stillwater, a 21-18 win on Feb. 15, 2015.
The 2017 NWCA Dual Championship Series full schedule is as follows (all times Eastern): Rutgers at Lehigh, 2/17, 7 p.m.; Michigan at North Carolina State, 2/17, 8 p.m.; Purdue at South Dakota State, 2/17, 7 p.m.; Iowa at Edinboro, 2/18, 7 p.m.; Ohio State at Cornell, 2/19, 1 p.m.; Indiana at Appalachian State, 2/19, 3 p.m.; Nebraska at Virginia Tech, 2/19, 7 p.m., Penn State at Oklahoma State, 2/19, 4 p.m.
Penn State heads to Bloomington, Indiana, for the 2017 Big Ten Wrestling Championships. The two-day event is set for Saturday and Sunday, March 4-5, in IU’s Assembly Hall.