Nittany Lion Wrestling Club Hosts All-Star Wrestling Event
Nittany Lion Wrestling Club Hosts All-Star Wrestling Event
The Nittany Lion Wrestling Club is hosting an All-Star event featuring 8 NCAA champs and 11 All-Americans.
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Cael Sanderson is throwing a wrestling party in State College and heaps of all-star international competitors are invited!
Most of the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club athletes will be shaking off their pandemic induced mat rust with matches against opponents from several of the country's top wrestling clubs. The wrestling jamboree will feature eight NCAA champs and 11 All-Americans. It's got Cael so excited he's tweeting references to Hot Rod!
Cool beans indeed.
Here are the current slate of scheduled matches, all subject to change due to the protean nature of life during covid times.
Bo Nickal (NLWC) vs Alex Dieringer (Cliff Keen WC)
Kyle Snyder (NLWC) vs Mike Macchiavello (Wolfpack RTC)
Jason Nolf (NLWC) vs David McFadden (Penn RTC)
Zain Retherford (NLWC) vs Alex Pantaleo (Cliff Keen WC)
Thomas Gilman (NLWC) vs Darian Cruz (Lehigh Valley WC)
Greg Kirkvliet (NLWC) vs Youssif Hemida (Cliff Keen WC)
Nick Nevills (NLWC) vs Jordan Wood (Lehigh Valley WC)
Jennifer Page (NLWC) vs Desiree Zavala
Jane Valencia (NLWC) vs Lauren Louive
Additional TBD matches could feature Vincenzo Joseph (NLWC), Bekzod Abdurakhmonov (NLWC), Malik Amine (Cliff Keen WC) and Domenic Abounader (Cliff Keen WC)
No weight classes have been announced and it's possible there will be no weigh-ins for these bouts. But even without a scale involved, these matchups provide a trove of intrigue.
We haven't seen Nickal compete since the Pellicone in January (which may as well have been a decade ago if we're counting in covid-years) where he placed seventh after withdrawing from a match against recently minted NLWC teammate Kyle Snyder.
Watch Nickal defeat Asian bronze-medalist and Olympic qualifier Alishar Yergali of Kazakhstan at the 2020 Pellicone:
Nickal also dropped in on the Bader Show a couple of times since that match, where he filled us in on his training situation and explained what it was like to play Spikeball in Abu Dhabi with Jorge Masvidal.
A matchup with Ringer is interesting as the three-time NCAA champ is making a run at the Olympics at 86kg, whereas Nickal has been competed at 97kg and at 92kg before that.
Dieringer also wrestled at Pellicone, where he finished runner-up to Zahid Valencia. A little less than two months later, Dieringer placed third at the Pan-Am Championships in a division won by Cuba's Yurieski Torreblanca, who defeated Dieringer in the semifinals.
Alex also stopped in at the Oklahoma RTC in Broken Arrow to get some mat time at the end of May. He was joined by a large contingent of Cliff Keen Wrestling Club athletes from Michigan, including Myles Amine, Malik Amine, Domenic Abounader and Logan Massa.
Thomas Gilman, Anthony Ashnault, Zane Richards, Vito Arujau, Andrew Alirez and a host of high school, college, and senior level athletes from across the country also made their way to Northeast Oklahoma for either of two camps run by RTC head coach Eric Guerrero. Scads of videos from those very excellent wrestling assemblages can be found here.
Watch Dieringer spar with Logan Massa in Oklahoma:
Snyder, like Dieringer, competed at the Pellicone and repped the red, white & blue at the Pan Am Championships. Snyder placed third in Italy and took home a gold from Pan Ams after an impressive tech fall over Cuba's highly credentialed Reineris Salas in the finals. Snyder will face off against Mike Macch, who made a national team at 92kg in 2019 behind J'den Cox and Bo Nickal (that's some pretty good depth for a non-Olympic weight by the way). Macch also placed fifth at the Alans Tournament in Vladikavkaz, Russia in December of 2019.
Watch Snyder's bronze-winning performance over Abraham Conyedo of Italy at the Pellicone:
Jason Nolf recently defeated Jordan Oliver at Beat the Streets Chicago's Rumble on the Rooftop. David McFadden beat Tommy Gant in an MMA cage in Chael Sonnen's first-ever Wrestling Underground event. Nolf's victory was featured on FITE TV's first foray into real wrestling (they are also heavily invested in fake wrestling) while McFadden's SUG win could be seen on UFC Fight Pass. Yes, we are living amidst a veritable cornucopia of wrestling streaming platforms. Never before have wrestlers had such competition for their services. Truly a wonderful time to be alive!
Z-Pain has an alluring matchup with powerhouse Alec Pantaleo. Zain is looking to bounce back after failing to qualify 65kg for the Olympics at the Pan Am OGQ in March. Pantaleo will likely have a size advantage, as he recently placed eighth at Senior Nationals at 74kg.
Thomas Gilman will get another match against Darian Cruz. Gilman was denied a shot at an NCAA title his senior season with the Hawkeyes when Cruz defeated him in the 2017 NCAA semifinals. Gilman exacted revenge a few months later at the 2017 World Team Trials. Gilman also exacted revenge in two consecutive matches at the 2019 World Team Trials Challenge Tournament.
Watch Gilman vs Cruz at the 2017 WTT:
Cruz would win a 2017 NCAA title while Gilman took silver at the 2017 World Championships, so not a bad 2017 for either wrestler.
Of note in the two heavyweight matchups is that they each feature a wrestler with NCAA eligibility: Penn State's Greg Kerkvliet, who has four years of eligibility left, and Lehigh's Jordan Wood, who will be entering his senior campaign next time he steps on to the mat for the Mountain Hawks. The fact that both are expected to wrestle here likely means they will both be taking an Olympic redshirt, as no NCAA wrestler is allowed to partake in outside competitions prior to November 1 (with exemptions for events that are part of the world team trials or Olympics team trials process, which would presumably include Senior Nationals on October 9-11 - hat tip T-Ram!).
Both Wood and Kerkvliet qualify for an Oly RS by dint of their UWW Cadet world medals (and probably some other criteria).
Speaking of Wood and Kerkvliet, here is the second match of their battle for the 2019 U23 world team spot. Round 1 was also a slobberknocker of epic proportions.
Page vs Zavala is a rematch of a bout we saw at Senior Nationals in Fort Worth last December, won 9-6 by Page. Zavala would finish in seventh place while Page secured the fifth place step on the 62kg podium.
Valencia became the first women's wrestler from Mexico to qualify for the Olympic Games when she made the finals at the Pan Am qualifying event in March in Ottawa, Canada. Doctor Valencia also recently completed medical school and is married to 2012 Olympic silver-medalist Jamie Espinal. The power couple both train at the NLWC.
Valencia's opponent, Lauren Louive, failed to reach the podium at Senior Nationals. Both compete at 57kg.
We'll have to wait to see who two-time world bronze medalist Bekzod Abdurakhmonov will face. Ditto for two-time NCAA champ Vincenzo Joseph. We don't suppose any fan would mind if they wrestled each other but one would assume Coach Sanderson is looking for opponents from outside the NLWC for each of them.
We'll also await the announcement of Malik and Domenic's opponents. And who knows what other surprises are in store for this event. Maybe more matches, maybe a recreation of one of the many stunts from Hot Rod. We'll have to wait and find out together!