Wrestling: NCAA brackets are out; update on 125-pound Suriano
It's official that Nick Suriano is the third seed at 125 pounds for next week's NCAA Championships. His status to compete, however, is anything but.
Joining Jeff Byers on the Penn State Coaches Show Wednesday night, head coach Cael Sanderson commented on the injured 125-pound freshman.
“He’s wrestling,” Sanderson said. “Didn’t make sense to wrestle him at Big Tens. Yeah, we could’ve used him, but setting himself back was not worth it.”
PSU finished in second behind Ohio State at the conference championship, but Sanderson and his individuals annually set the national tournament as the ultimate prize. With the brackets being released Wednesday night, the aim has been to give Suriano as much opportunity to heal before the first session begins the morning of March 16.
“I think training can be overrated at this point in time," added Sanderson. “There is story after story of [wrestlers] who are injured or hurt and they can’t be on the mat one week or two weeks before a big tournament – Olympics or worlds – and they end up having the best tournament of their lives, so we’re obviously paying attention to those things and trying to make sure that our training is correct and we’re preparing our team correctly but as long as he’s getting his heart rate up. It’s not like he’s going to learn how to wrestle right now. He’s been wrestling almost everyday of his life since he was a little kid. It’s just a matter of him keeping his conditioning up and keeping his mind fresh, so I’m not worried about the training aspect. It’s just trying to get him as close to 100 percent as possible. That’s priority No. 1”
A four-time undefeated high school state champion from Bergen (N.J.) Catholic., Suriano had been victorious in all but one of his first 16 collegiate matches – and that was to the eventual No. 1 seed of the weight class.
Then he hurt his lower leg in the dual-meet finale on Feb. 19, and it forced him to default that match against Oklahoma State’s Nick Piccininni. At the Big Ten tournament this past weekend he again injury defaulted his opening-round match before medically forfeiting out of competition.
On Tuesday, he received an at-large bid for the national tournament on Tuesday before the brackets and seeds were announced tonight.
Suriano draws Kyle Akins of Buffalo in his first match.
