PITTSBURGH — Penn State won its fourth straight NCAA wrestling title and eighth title in nine years led by former Wasatch High School wrestling legend Cael Sanderson.
Sanderson won four high school titles wrestling at Wasatch High School and then won four NCAA titles for Iowa State, becoming the first and only wrestler to finish his collegiate career undefeated. He also won a gold medal in the 2004 Olympic games.
Sanderson then turned his attention to coaching, first at his college alma mater Iowa State, but then moved on to Penn State in 2010. In his nine seasons at Penn State, the Nittany Lions have won eight titles including the 2019 tournament held this weekend in Pittsburgh.
Penn State crowned three individual titles with Jason Nolf (157 pounds), Bo Nickal (197) and Anthony Cassar (285). Vincenzo Joseph (165) and Mark Hall (174) finished second while Roman Bravo-Young (125) and Nick Lee (141) placed in the top eight to give the Nittany Lions seven total All-Americans.
Penn State scored 137.5 points to easily outpoint fellow Big Ten rival Ohio State (96.5 points). Oklahoma State (84), Iowa (76) and Michigan (62.5) rounded out the top five.
Utah Valley finished tied for 29th out of the 70 teams that qualified wrestlers for the 2019 NCAA tournament. Wolverine grapplers Matt Findlay (141) and Demetrius Romero (165) went 2-2 at the meet finishing just one round away from becoming All-Americans. Brothers Tanner (197) and Tate Orndorff (285) went 1-2 as did Kimball Bastian (174). Their efforts gave Utah Valley 11.5 points and their highest finish ever in the NCAA meet. Findlay also won the Elite 90 award for being the top academic wrestler in the nation. The Biology major with a Russian minor carries a 3.94 GPA.
Other NCAA champions included Iowa's Spencer Lee (125), Rutgers' Nick Suriano (133) and Anthony Ashnault (149), Cornell's Yianni Diakomihalis (141), Virginia Tech's Mekhi Lewis (165), Arizona State's Zahid Valencia (174) and Northern Iowa's Drew Foster (184). In a topsy-turvy tournament full of upsets, only two No. 1 seeds, Nolf and Nickal, actually won the tournament.
In other Utah connections, former Spanish Fork three-time state champion Branson Ashworth (165), wrestling for Wyoming, went 1-2 and was actually eliminated by Romero in the consolation round in a great bout that the Wolverine wrestler won 6-4 in sudden victory. Ben Anderson, who wrestled for Pleasant Grove winning three state titles, went 1-2 grappling for the Duke Blue Devils. Springville four-time state champion Jason Chamberlain is an assistant coach at Fresno State which reinstated its program in 2017. The Bulldogs crowned one All-American and finished tied with Utah Valley in 29th place.
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