For the second consecutive year and the sixth time out of the last seven years, Penn State wrestling won the NCAA Division 1 team title.

This time they did it most impressively, adding five individual champs to their list of accolades.

They had gone into the tournament, which took place March 16-18 at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, without one of their powerhouses, true freshman 125-pounder Nick Suriano, due to injury. This left them with only eight wrestlers out of the nine that qualified.

Qualifiers included: Suriano (125), senior Jimmy Gulibon (141), junior Zain Retherford (149), sophomore Jason Nolf (157), redshirt freshman Vincenzo Joseph (165), true freshman Mark Hall (174), sophomore Bo Nickal (184), junior Matt McCutcheon (197), and sophomore Nick Nevills (HWT).

Losing Suriano stood as a potential roadblock in the Nittany Lions’ path to a team title, so they went in knowing that they were going to have to rack up some bonus points to win again.

At the end of three-day tournament, out of the eight who wrestled, six placed and five of those six were champions.

The two souls who didn’t place were 197-pounder Matt McCutcheon and 141- pounder Jimmy Gulibon.

Heavyweight Nick Nevills placed 5th.

The list of champions includes 149-pounder Zain Retherford, 157-pounder Jason Nolf, 165-pounder Vincenzo Joseph, 174-pounder Mark Hall, and 184-pounder Bo Nickal.

Zain Retherford beat Lavion Mayes of Missouri 18-2 for his victory run.

Jason Nolf beat Joey Lavelle also from Missouri 14-6.

In arguably the most exciting match of the night, Vincenzo Joseph pinned returning 2X National Champ from Illinois Isaiah Martinez. Joseph handed Martinez only his second ever loss in his now three years of college experience.

Mark Hall defeated Bo Jordan of Ohio State 5-2 for his title.

Last but not least, returning NCAA finalist Bo Nickal stunned Cornell’s Gabe Dean, a returning 2X NCAA Champ, with a 4-3 win.

Penn State, with their amazing run, won the team race with 146.5 points, 36.5 points ahead of second place finisher Ohio State.

They became the third team in history to have five National Champs in one year. Other teams to accomplish such is Iowa and Oklahoma State.

Penn State now goes back to work to prepare for perhaps even a better outcome next year.

Until then, the legend of this year will live on and so will the chant WE ARE…PENN STATE!