Penn State goes 5-for-5 in finals, wins 7th NCAA title

By Richard Immel
USA Wrestling
ST LOUIS – With the team title in the bag entering Saturday night, Penn State was focused on its five men competing for individual titles, and did they ever deliver.

The Nittany Lions went a perfect five-for-five on the raised platform inside the Scottrade Center, with 19,675 boisterous fans in attendance. The five individual champions accented an all-time team performance as Penn State won its seventh overall national title, and sixth in the past seven seasons.

Penn State came out on top in the team race with 146.5 total points, 36.5 points ahead of the runners-up from Ohio State. Oklahoma State finished in third place with 103 points, followed by Iowa in fourth place with 97 points and Missouri rounding out the top five with 86.5 points.

“That’s why today is so – I’m still kind of like it’s just crazy because usually you have somebody lose or something doesn’t go right, and as a competitor your heart is always with the kid that doesn’t reach his goal. And so this is very special,” said Penn State head coach and National Wrestling Hall of Fame Distinguished Member Cael Sanderson.

The 2017 NCAA Division I Championships were the third-most attended in the history of the event with a combined six-session attendance of 111,454 spectators. The tournament will be hosted in Cleveland next season.

Complete brackets and match-by-match results from this event can be found on Trackwrestling.com.

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