Penn State’s long wait for a wrestling victory over Illinois continues. The Nittany Lions dropped six bouts as they ended their final Big Ten roadtrip with an 18-15 loss to the Fighting Illini on Sunday at Huff Hall. The loss was Penn State’s ninth straight to Illinois, a program it hasn’t defeated since joining the Big Ten. The Nittany Lions’ last win over the Fighting Illini came in 1957. For the second straight match, Penn State (10-5, 2-3 Big Ten) didn’t allow any bonus points. But the Nittany Lions, who started the roadtrip with an 18-15 victory over Northwestern on Friday, didn’t win many close bouts, either. Illinois (9-2, 1-1) won six of the seven bouts decided by four points or fewer, including the No. 1 vs. No. 2 showdown between Mike Poeta and Dan Vallimont at 157 pounds. “It’s obviously very disappointing,” Penn State coach Troy Sunderland said. “We just have to be able to win some of those close ones and we didn’t get it done. A lot of it is inexplicable. We didn’t wrestle smart and we wrestled with a lack of focus.”

Penn State’s problems were illustrated early in the dual meet as Illinois won the first three bouts to take a 9-0 lead. The match started at heavyweight, where John Wise recorded a 3-1 victory over John Laboranti in a bout that didn’t include a take-down. “Laboranti didn’t show up,” Sunderland said. “He only did one move and nearly scored with one second left in the match.” Gabe Flores followed Wise’s victory by recording two takedowns to defeat Mark McKnight 6-1 at 125. Illinois freshman Jimmy Kennedy then defeated Tim Haas 7-3 at 133. Penn State didn’t record a takedown during the first three bouts and fell behind 9-0 for the second straight match. “It’s the same thing we did against Northwestern,” Sunderland said.

Still, Penn State managed to tie the match after five bouts as freshman Garrett Scott pinned freshman Ryan Prater at 141 and Bubba Jenkins defeated former Bald Eagle Area standout Grant Paswall 7-2 at 149. Scott’s performance represented the highlight for Penn State. Scott, who was making his first start since a 4-3 loss to Iowa’s Dan LeClere on Jan. 20, took Prater down less than 30 seconds into the bout and immediately locked a cradle to take a 4-0 lead. Prater escaped, but Scott took him down again and locked another cradle before completing the fall in 2:21. The victory represented the first in a Big Ten dual for Scott, a three-time PIAA Class AA champion competing with returning All-American Jake Strayer for the starting spot.

“Garrett obviously knows how to win and the team needed the bonus points,” Sunderland said. “He went out and almost pinned him with a cradle and Garrett has the ability to stay with it. It was a dominating effort.” Jenkins then handed Paswall (18-6), a two-time PIAA Class AAA placewinner at BEA, his second Big Ten loss. Jenkins took Paswall down in the first period, rode him the entire second period and recorded a reversal and two-point nearfall in the third.

Penn State failed to capitalize on the momentum produced by Jenkins and Scott’s victories. Poeta, the nation’s No. 1 157-pounder, recovered from his loss to Michigan’s Jeff Marsh on Friday to defeat the second-ranked Vallimont 6-3. Poeta recorded takedowns in the first and third periods while Vallimont scored all three of his points on escapes. Illinois then won two toss-up bouts as Roger Smith- Bergsrud edged Dave Rella 3-2 at 165 and John Dergo parlayed two takedowns into a 6-5 victory over David Erwin at 174.

Penn State trailed 18-9 entering the final two bouts, but the Nittany Lions failed to record any bonus points in Phil Bomberger’s 7-4 victory over Ben Friedl and Phil Davis’ 1-0 victory over Patrick Bond at 197. Penn State resumes its Big Ten schedule Friday against No. 6 Michigan at Rec Hall. The Nittany Lions must win their three remaining conference duals to record five Big Ten victories for a third straight season.

Thanks to the "Centre Daily Times" (State College, Pa.) for the article