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Penn State has two up for Heisman of wrestling

From Mirror reports

UNIVERSITY PARK — Two Penn State wrestlers have been nominated for the 2018 WIN Magazine/Culture House Hodge Trophy, which is considered the Heisman Trophy for amateur wrestling.

This year’s nominees are senior Zain Retherford, junior Bo Nickal, and Seth Gross from South Dakota State and Arizona State’s Zahid Valenica.

Fans can play a part in selecting the winner as part of the fan vote portion of the award process. They must go to www.win-magazine.com/2018/03/2018-win-magazineculture-house-dan-hodge-trophy-presented-by-asics-fan-vote/ to cast votes.

The winner will be announced on Tuesday, March 27t. The winner of the fan vote will earn two first-place votes among the total ballots from a group of formal voters which includes each former Hodge Trophy winner, national media, representatives of national wrestling organizations and retired former college coaches from different regions.

Retherford won last year’s Hodge Trophy.

A Nittany Lion has won the Hodge Trophy four times: Kerry McCoy in 1997, David Taylor in both 2012 and 2014 and Retherford in 2017. Nittany Lion head coach Cael Sanderson is the only wrestler to ever win three times (2000, 2001 and 2002).

Elsewhere:

n Mount Aloysius junior shortstop Matthew McCourt was named AMCC Conference Player of the Week Monday for his .667 batting average. He also scored nine runs.

n Penn State Altoona men’s volleyball’s senior middle hitter Dan Downs was named the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference’s Player of the Week for his strong play last week. One day after winning that honor, he was announced as the North Eastern Athletic Conference’s Defensive Player of the Week. Downs totaled 14 total blocks (11 solo blocks, three block assists, 2.00 blocks per set) and eight digs (1.14 digs per set). He also finished the week with 17 kills (2.43 kills per set) while swinging at a .311 clip.

n Penn State Altoona freshman Parag Dharbhamulla was named the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference’s Player of the Week in men’s tennis on Monday.

n Three members of the Penn State women’s gymnastics team garnered All-Big Ten honors, as announced by the conference office Monday afternoon. Freshman Lauren Bridgens and senior Briannah Tsang were named First Team All-Big Ten, while junior Sabrina Garcia was named Second Team All-Big Ten.

n Former Penn State men’s soccer student-athlete Cameron Steele signed with North Carolina FC on Monday.

n Saint Francis men’s tennis freshman Sebastian Pinos was named Northeast Conference Rookie of the Week after helping the Red Flash to a 1-1 weekend, including a 5-2 win in its NEC opener against St. Francis Brooklyn. He went 1-1 in singles and combined with Franz Luna for a 2-0 record in doubles.

n Penn State will host the 2018 National Collegiate Men’s and Women’s Fencing Championships this weekend in the Multi-Sport Facility on the University Park campus. The event, which crowns six individual NCAA champions as well as the combined team champion, is set for March 22-25. Penn State is hosting the event for the first time since 2009 and the third time overall since 1991. Penn State has won a nation’s best 13 combined NCAA fencing championships

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