Mar 19, 2016 3 min read

Associated Press

NEW YORK- Penn State sent five wrestlers to the semifinals of the NCAA Wrestling Championship and has a stranglehold in the team standings Friday.

Nico Megaludis (125 pounds), Zain Retherford (149), Jason Nolf (157), Bo Nickal (174) and Morgan McIntosh (197) advanced to Saturday’s finals at Madison Square Garden to help push the No. 1 Nittany Lions toward their fifth team championship in six years. Penn State led No. 5 Oklahoma State 114-79.5 after four sessions. Penn State needs 6.5 points to clinch the team title.

The 133-pound final will be Cornell’s Nahshon Garrett, who pinned Cody Brewer in 0:21. Garrett will face Iowa’s Cory Clark who edged Illinois’ Zane Richards 4-3 in the semis.

Oklahoma State’s Dean Heil beat Rutgers’ Anthony Ashnault 8-3 and will face unseeded Bryce Meredith from Wyoming in the finals. Meredith beat Stanford’s Joey McKenna 5-3.

Retherford pinned Michigan’s Alec Pantaleo in 4:49 and will face Iowa’s Branden Sorensen for the 149-pound title. Sorensen edged Oklahoma State’s Anthony Collica 4-2 to punch his ticket to the finals.

Nickal came from behind to beat Indiana’s Nathan Jackson 4-3 to advance to his first title match. He’ll face Ohio State’s Myles Martin who pulled away from Iowa State’s Lelund Witherspoon 8-2.

Cornell’s Gabe Dean outlasted N.C. State’s Pete Renda 9-4 to set up his first title defense. He’ll battle Nebraska’s Timothy Dudley who majored Missouri’s Willie Miklus 12-4.

McIntosh will face Missouri’s J’Den Cox, the 197-pound champion from two years ago. McIntosh edged Iowa’s Nathan Burak 4-2 and Cox pinned Minnesota’s Brett Pfarr in 6:29.

The 285-pound final will pit defending champion Nick Gwiazdowski of N.C. State against Ohio State’s Kyle Snyder. Gwiazdowski outlasted Michigan’s Adam Coon 3-2 and Snyder beat Virginia Tech’s Ty Walz 10-6.

DEFENDING CHAMPIONS

Oklahoma State’s Alex Dieringer will get a shot to defend his 165-pound title. He majored Missouri’s Daniel Lewis 14-4 to set up a match with Wisconsin’s Isaac Jordan, who beat his cousin Bo Jordan of Ohio State 5-4.

Penn State’s Megaludis beat American’s David Terao 8-2 to set up a finals bout with Iowa’s Thomas Gilman, who pinned defending champion Ohio State’s Nathan Tomasello in 7:37 in a sudden victory.

Defending 157-pound champion Isaiah Martinez will face Nolf on Saturday night after Martinez took Kent State’s Ian Miller down in sudden victory for a 7-5 win. Nolf hammered Rider’s Chad Walsh 19-4.

Locally, Connor Schram and Solomon Chishko each failed to make it out of the quarterfinal round in New York.

Schram, the 125-pound redshirt sophomore from Stanford, was pinned in 5:40 by American’s David Terao in the quarterfinals. He rallied by winning a 3-1 decision over Ron Besser of Oregon State in the consolation round.

Stanford’s Joey McKenna, the No. 2 seed at 141 pounds, won a 6-1 decision over No. 7-seed Solomon Chishko of Virginia Tech in the quarterfinals. Chishko, who like Schram wrestled for Canon-McMillan High School, stopped Seth Gross of South Dakota State, 10-3, in last night’s consolation round.

Dalton Macri, a 125-pound freshman from Cornell, was eliminated from the tournament by Josh Rodriguez of North Dakota State after losing a 5-4 decision in consolations.