College Wrestling
#25 Broncs Host #1 Nittany Lions on TV
LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ—The Rider University wrestling team will take on three-time defending national champion Penn State Saturday at 4pm in front of a SOLD OUT Alumni Gymnasium. The match will be televised on The Comcast Network.
“We have a giant coming in here,” said Rider head coach Gary Taylor, who has hosted Wisconsin, North Carolina State, Lehigh, Missouri, Iowa State, Purdue, Nebraska, Pittsburgh, Ohio State and Oklahoma in recent years. “If you want to be a bullfighter you have to fight bulls.”
Penn State (0-0) comes in with nine wrestlers who are ranked among the top 16 in the nation in their weight classes, including #1 Ed Ruth, who is 5-0 at 184, #1 David Taylor, who is 5-0 at 165, #3 Nico Magaludis, who is 4-1 at 125, #3 Matt Brown, who is 5-0 at 174 and #4 Morgan McIntosh, who is 5-0 at 197. Ruth and graduated Quintin Wright were National Champions last year for PSU.
Rider (3-0) is led by sophomore Robert Deutsch (Cherry Hill, NJ/Eastern Regional), who is 3-0, senior Ramon Santiago (Sayreville, N.J./Sayreville), who is 2-1, and junior Donald McNeil (Plainville, Mass./Wyoming Seminary), who is 3-0.
All three were NCAA qualifiers last year.
Deutsch is ranked 11th in the nation at 125 and Santiago is ranked 14th at 165 by Amateur Wrestling News. McNeil is ranked 28th by the Wrestling Report.
After a 3-0 weekend at the Hokie Duals in Blacksburg, Va., Rider debuted at No. 25 in the first USA Today/NWCA/AWN Division I Coaches Poll of the regular season.
Rider and Penn State have met three times since the series began in 2002-03, with the Nittany Lions winning all three, a 48-0 decision last year at University Park, 41-0 at the 2006-07 Virginia Duals and 38-3 at the 2002-03 Virginia Duals.
“We wrestled them hard last year and we plan to do that again this year,” said Taylor, who has 393 wins and has produced 13 All-Americans in his 35 years at Rider. “We're excited about wrestling them. This is how you get better, how you prepare for the NCAA tournament. You are not going to be intimidated by anyone after you've faced Penn State.”
The match will be televised on The Comcast Network. On most cable networks TCN is on channel 8, or channel 846 in HD. On the Verizon System it is channel 99 in the Greater Philadelphia area.
The Comcast Network is available to every TV distributor - cable, satellite and telco - that serves viewers in the network's territory (including Eastern & Central PA, South NJ and Delaware, subject to league rules and restrictions).
The match can also be heard on 107.7 FM the Bronc and on GoBroncs.com.
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