Welcome to the first edition of Morelli OnLion, a weekly look at Penn State athletics. Each and every week on gantnews.com, yours truly will take an inside look at sports on Penn State’s University Park campus.
We’ll focus on the the four major sports — football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball and wrestling — but nothing is off-limits. We’ll even hit the club sports from time to time, like the Penn State Icers, one of the most popular teams on campus.
This past weekend, several members of the Penn State wrestling team ventured to The Palace at Auburn Hills near Detroit to take part in the NCAA Wrestling Championships, so let’s start there.
Lions finish 11th
It was a bittersweet trip to nationals for the Penn State wrestling team. The Nittany Lions came back with three All-Americans — Aaron Anspach, Phil Davis and Jake Strayer.
Anspach had a chance to win a national title at heavyweight, but he was up against one of the nation’s top wrestlers in Minnesota’s Cole Konrad. Konrad pinned Anspach in 1:53, sending the PSU senior home with a second-place finish. Second place didn’t sit well with Anspach.
“It just sucks, you know? It’s been said it’s like kissing your sister,” he said. “It’s true. Second sucks, especially coming this far.”
But Anspach has nothing to be ashamed of. Konrad won for the 76th consecutive time and in the process captured his second NCAA title.
Anspach was Penn State coach Troy Sunderland’s eighth finalist in his nine years in Happy Valley. Although Konrad had pinned Anspach at the Big Ten Tournament, Sunderland was hoping for better things this time around.
“Konrad’s big, long and strong. He got the body lock and got Aaron off balance,” Sunderland said. “That’s why he hasn’t been beaten in a long time.”
Junior 197-pounder Davis put the wraps on his season with a fifth-place finish. He went 1-1 on Saturday and 4-2 in the tournament. In the consolation semifinals, Davis lost a 5-4 decision to J.D. Bergman of Ohio State. But he came back to defeat Jerry Rinaldi of Cornell, 8-4, to capture fifth place.
Sophomore Strayer (133 pounds) went 1-0 on Saturday and finished the tournament 4-2. In his seventh place bout, he pinned Indiana’s Andrae Hernandez in 2:38.
“It’s certainly not where he wants to be,” Sunderland said. “He wants to try to do better. But after that loss in the All-America round last year, it’s something, that feeling, he didn’t want to go through that again. It was a good effort.”
Local kid James Yonushonis, a Philipsburg-Osceola graduate, had a disappointing outing at nationals, going 1-2. An All-American last season, Yonushonis couldn’t capture that magic again. He opened the tournament well enough, defeating Appalachian State’s Neal Martin, 8-6. However, he then lost to American’s Ricky Rueda, 3-1. In the consolation round, he fell to Central Michigan’s Brandon Sinnott, 5-3. That ended his Penn State career.
“Yonushonis’ matches were heartbreakers, but he really didn’t wrestle the tempo he needed to to get the wins,” Sunderland said. “That’s with everything James has put in.”
Yonushonis finished the season a 30-6. During his career at Penn State, he went 83-50.
Clearfield Area High School graduate Brad Pataky made the trip to Michigan with a couple of teammates and watched from the stands with the Penn State contingent.
Pataky took a redshirt this season and is expected to wrestle at 125 pounds next season.
Penn State heavyweight wrestler Aaron Anspach
(Photos courtesy of Blue White Illustrated)
James Yonushonis, Philipsburg-Osceola High School graduate
One and done
The Penn State men’s basketball team had another rough season under head coach Ed DeChellis, finishing the year at 11-19.
The team lost 13 straight Big Ten games at one point during the year before snapping that skid with a 74-72 win over Iowa on Feb. 28. But the Lions couldn’t build off that win, and got bounced in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament, losing to Illinois, 66-60.
“It was disappointing for our expectations,” said PSU junior forward Geary Claxton. “But, it’s in the past now so we’ve just gotta moved ahead, move forward, work hard in the offseason and look forward to next season.”
Claxton and sophomore Jamelle Cornley are the Lions’ most exciting players. However, even Cornley couldn’t mask his disappointment on exiting the tournament in the opening round.
“I think the biggest thing for all of us it to pretty much get some rest and get away from the game of basketball. It’s taken such a toll on us. The year hasn’t gone anywhere how we wanted it to go,” Cornley said.
The Lions lose just two players to graduation, guards Ben Luber and David Jackson. They have one of the nation’s top scholastic point guards, Talor Battle, joining the team next season, so there is reason for hope. But the Lions went to the NIT last season, and they were hoping to build off that success. Needless to say, that didn’t materialize.
Penn State men’s basketball coach Ed DeChellis
(Photo courtesy of Blue White Illustrated)
Two and done
The Penn State women’s basketball team endured just its second losing season under head coach Rene Portland, finishing the year 15-16.
They were hoping for a bid to the WNIT, but a 1-1 performance at the Big Ten Tournament ended their season.
All season long, the Lady Lions struggled away from the Bryce Jordan Center, winning just two games. But at the Big Ten Tournament, they reversed their fortunes, thumping No. 4 seed Illinois, 61-49. In the tourney semifinals, though, they lost a 73-71 overtime heartbreaker to top-seeded Ohio State.
The Lady Lions are getting better, but they are still learning how to win.
“As disappointed as our whole team is, we have to make this a positive, somehow,” junior guard Kam Gissendanner said following the loss to OSU. “We took the No. 5 team in the country to overtime and lost by two points. To not come out with a victory is hard to accept, but we’re going to keep working. We have a lot of people coming back.”
Point guard Brianne O’Rourke, who really turned it up a notch come tourney time, agreed with Gissendanner.
“It’s a confidence boost, even though we’re down right now,” the sophomore said. “We just look and say ‘we can play with teams like this.’
It gives us hope for the future.”
Next season, the Lady Lions will have to learn how to win on the road. Unfortunate road losses to St. Francis (7-22), Northwestern (8-22) and Michigan (10-20) ultimately kept them from getting to the postseason.
Penn State women’s basketball coach Rene Portland
(Photo courtesy of Blue White Illustrated)
Snow Opener?
The Penn State baseball team is off to another rough start, going 2-11 out of the gate this season. The Nittany Lions dropped every game on their spring break road trip and were swept in a three-game series at Oral Roberts over the weekend.
There is one bright spot, however. The Lions defeated then-No. 1 North Carolina back on March 3, 3-2. Head coach Robbie Wine admitted that the win was very big.
“The most important thing we took away from that win is that the guys now know that they can compete with the best. We have talked about it for some time now and it is now a reality,” Wine said. “We still have a lot to prove and a long way to go but beating No. 1 UNC at Chapel Hill is a big step for Penn State baseball.”
The baseball team was slated to have its home opener at the new Medlar Field at Lubrano Park on Wednesday night against the University of Pittsburgh, but that game has been postponed by the recent snowstorm.
Moshannon Valley graduate Paul Hawkins is on the Lion roster. The right-handed pitcher went 2-1 last season with an ERA of 4.50.
That’s it for this week. If there’s something you would like to see in a future edition of Morelli OnLion, send an e-mail suggestion to morellionlion@gmail.com.