UNIVERSITY PARK — Penn State wrestling coach Troy Sunderland isn’t happy.
Sure, his Nittany Lions are 8-2 and have risen to No. 10 in the rankings. And, yes, nine of them are ranked in the top 20 at their respective weights. But there’s one stat, one record, that gnaws at the coach — Penn State is 0-2 in the Big Ten.
Sunderland said he hopes to erase that 0 in the win column at 7:30 p.m. tonight in Rec Hall against No. 18 Michigan State (2-3).
“It’s back to the Big Ten frame of mind. It’s nice to wrestle the rivalries in the east, but when you get back to the Big Ten frame of mind, we’re 0-2 in the conference. That has to change (tonight), “Sunderland said.
“We have to be on our toes, ready to go. Michigan State is coming off a one-point loss to Edinboro. I’m sure they’ll be focused on coming in here and trying to knock us off. We have to have our guys ready to focus on (tonight). Then we have to prepare for Minnesota (1 p.m. Sunday) later (tonight) and Saturday.”
Penn State and Michigan State have wrestled 18 times since the series started in 1974 and the teams have split evenly, 9-9. So, Sunderland knows the Spartans aren’t a team to be overlooked.
“The Simmons brothers (125-pounder Nick and 141-pounder Andy) are tough kids and dangerous wrestlers, “Sunderland said, “(Darren) McKnight is solid and an experienced senior at 149. (Joe) Williams is a tough young kid who is hard to score on at 184. (Max) Lossen is a big kid at heavyweight. (R.J.) Boudro at 174 beat James by a point last year.”
It’s been 16 days since the Nittany Lions last wrestled (a 33-7 shellacking of Lock Haven on Jan. 11). The weekend before the Lock Haven meet, Penn State was a bit flat in a 24-12 win over Lehigh (on Jan. 6) and much sharper in a 27-7 win over Cornell (on Jan. 8).
Sunderland said he hopes to avoid a repeat of the flat performance Penn State had against Lehigh after an extended holiday break.
“We weighed the guys early in the week and they’ve been looking good. I think the biggest issue prior to the Lehigh match was coming off Christmas break and that whole holiday time period, “he said.
“Our weights were much better this time around after our break. We had a good training week. I feel that we’ll look more sharp than we did against Lehigh. I think, hopefully, we’ll take it up a notch against Minnesota, similar to what we did against Cornell.”
Michigan State has just four ranked wrestlers, but the rest of the lineup includes potential pitfalls, too.
“It can come down to matches where we should score bonus points, “Sunderland said, “We have to take advantage of those opportunities when they present themselves.”
And, it goes without saying, the Nittany Lions will have to guard against looking ahead to a 1 p.m. Sunday showdown with No. 1 Minnesota.
“We’re healthy; we’re pretty fresh, “Sunderland said. “We should be ready to go.”
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