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Minnesota edges Penn State, 19-15, in Big Ten road dual
January 31, 2003
The fourth-ranked University of Minnesota wrestling team edged No. 15 Penn State, 19-15, tonight in State College, Pa., with the meet coming down to the deciding heavyweight match. Minnesota led 16-15 heading into the final bout between No. 9 Garrett Lowney and PSU's No. 11 Pat Cummins. Lowney dropped Cummins, 5-3, to give Minnesota (11-4, 2-0 Big Ten) its second conference win of the season.
The Golden Gophers and Nittany Lions split the 10 matches with the Maroon and Gold building a 16-6 lead after six bouts. But PSU stormed back with three straight wins from 174 to 197 pounds to force the heavyweight match to decide the dual. The Lions took the meet's first lead as Adam Smith pulled out a 6-5 win over No. 20 Bobbe Lowe at 125 pounds. Minnesota took the lead after 133 pounds as second-ranked Ryan Lewis posted 14-5 major decision on No. 8 Josh Moore to give UM a 4-3 lead. The see-saw continued as No. 13 Scott Moore downed No. 12 Derek Phillips, 4-2, to make it 6-4 PSU. It was Phillips' first loss as a Golden Gopher.
Gold Country went on a run in the next three bouts to take a solid lead, beginning with No. 2 Jared Lawrence domination of No. 17 Nate Galloway at 149 pounds. Lawrence notched his third technical fall of the year with a 25-7 shellacking in 7:00. Lawrence is now 18-2 overall and 14-1 in duals. Top-ranked Luke Becker then gave UM three more team points with his 10-4 win over No. 10 Nate Wachter. Fifth-ranked Jacob Volkmann wrapped up Minnesota's run with a suffocating 13-1 major decision over No. 14 Doc Vecchio. With his team-leading seventh major decision of the season, Volkmann gave the Maroon and Gold a 16-6 lead.
The Nittany Lions stormed back to make it interesting, beginning with Dan Waters' 12-5 win over Matt Nagel at 174 pounds. PSU tacked on four more points at 184 pounds as No. 4 Mark Becks dropped No. 18 Josh McLay, 5-2. With the loss, McLay evened his overall record at 11-11. Penn State made the meet a! one-point affair after Ryan Cummins' 6-5 win over Jacob Lininger at 197 pounds. Lininger was filling in for two-time All-American Damion Hahn who is expected to join the team Sunday at Ohio State after being reinstated following an academic dispute.
The Golden Gophers clinched the hard-fought win at heavyeight with Lowney's second win over a ranked opponent this season. With the triumph, Minnesota avoided its first Big Ten loss since Feb. 6, 1998, at Penn State (21-13).
The Golden Gophers next travel to Columbus, Ohio to battle No. 3 Ohio State on Sunday, Feb. 2, at 2 p.m.
Minnesota 19, Penn State 15