Rasheed Has Arrived!!!
He showed promise at the lower rates he wrestled, but no one saw what was coming at the Southern Scuffle to ring in the 2018 college wrestling season. He bonused his way through the event with vicious cross-face cradles.
As one of three Nittany Lions competing at 197 pounds in this annual tournament, Rasheed who wrestled at 165 pounds the past two years won all five bouts as an unseeded wrestler and scored first-period falls in his final three bouts. His performance earned him OW honors and helped him outdistance his teammates Anthony Cassar, who was ranked fifth by WIN and claimed third at 197, and former NCAA qualifier Matt McCutcheon, who failed to place in the two-day event.
Meanwhile, all five returning NCAA champs Zain Retherford (149), Jason Nolf (157), Vincenzo Joseph (165), Mark Hall (174) and Bo Nickal (184) also won Scuffle titles with Retherford and Nolf also scoring falls in their finals. Nolf pinned all five foes in this year’s event.
With a total of 10 place-winners, the Lions easily out-distance runner-up Northern Iowa by 70 points and was within one point of tying the Southern Scuffle team point total, set last year by Oklahoma State.
A surprise 2nd place finish for the PANTHERTRAIN of UNI showed how much progress this team of young guys have been making. Improving on their top 10 finish last year the Northern Iowa group came to wrestle this year.
Top 10 Team Finishes at 2018 Southern Scuffle
| Place | School | Champs | Placers | Points |
| 1 | Penn State | 6 | 10 | 197 |
| 2 | Northern Iowa | 0 | 7 | 127 |
| 3 | Lehigh | 1 | 8 | 102 |
| 4 | Navy | 0 | 5 | 87 |
| 5 | Duke | 1 | 4 | 80 |
| 6 | Drexel | 0 | 7 | 77.5 |
| 7 | Virginia | 0 | 3 | 71 |
| 8 | CSU Bakersfield | 0 | 5 | 69 |
| 9 | Stanford | 0 | 4 | 68 |
| 10 | Lock Haven | 0 | 3 | 64.5 |
