T1MP.47 1, NtFLA.PT 1973 /953 THE NATIONAL COLLEGIATE ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION'S newly - crowned champions who battled for honors Friday and Saturday in wrestling's climactic affair. Penn State became the nation's first winner from the. East in 23 years , by de throning defending champion, Oklahoma. The Nittany Lions had 21 team points to the Sooners 15. Champions from (1. to r.) are: Hugh .Peery (115), Pitt: Dick 'Mueller (123), Minnesota; East Is Happy—lt -.Finally Its First: NCAA Wrestling It's news each time the famous Oklahoma University wrestlers walk off with a Mational team title and is greater news when their rival--Oklahoma A&M—does the same. But when Coach Charlie Speidel's unbeaten grapplers took the title from the monopolizers Saturday, it's man bites dog. The greatest victory of them all gives the East the prestige it richly deserves. It shows, too, that the wrestling-minded West will.have to contend with the potential East whenever there is a- battle for national honors. Not to-go overlooked Bobbin' Along with. 808 SCHOP.LICOOf Ass't. Sports Editor Two days have passed since Penn State was blessed with two national titles, but people at the Nittany Vale are still shouting the praises toward the brand new NCAA champion wrestling and gymnastic teams. • Winning the 1953 national crown was no new thing for the gym team. Coach Gene Wettstone guided his 1948 team to a grand slam season, taking the Eastern, AAU, and NCAA. gym titles in one big sweep. Said the smiling Wettstone upon return from the nationals in Archbold Gymnasium at Syracuse, "It ,was all a team victory. We won mainly because of our team strength, not on individuals alone." Philosophizing further, Wettstone said that this just goes to prove that an individual sport like gymnastics, which dotes pri marily opt single' event' inners, can develop into a real team game "We had a tremendous break during the first day when the . preliminaries were h 1 d Jan (Cronsiedt) won the all-around event and put us up front. With his marvelous perforfnance." the Lion gym mentor said. The Flying routine, including caliithenics, fly ing •rings sidehorse, horizontal bar, and the parallel bars, with his usual "Finnished" forM, amas sing 1275 points-17 digits better than his closest competitor. Coach Wettstone said' that the Nittanies performed so well dur ing the prelims that the outcome of the NCAA's was 'actually de cided then. "We practically elimi- . nated_some of the top teams; like Florida State, Illinois,' and UCLA, by preventing many of- their top men from entering the finals on Saturday," Wettstone said. "We should have done better in *he finals than we did," he added. "One of the blows to our chances in the meet came when Captain Bob Kenyon wrenched his' back dueng the prelims, and could hardly move the next day. ,Then, too, Bobby Lawrence had a bad break on his : specialty, the sidehorse, after he haBl finished three-quarters of his routine. The same was true of Al Wick on the parallel bars. Al had a brilliant exercise, with good form and difficulty, until he lost his balance and' a possible second place behind teammate Cronstedt." In additiOn to his title in the all-around event, the flashy Cron stedt impressed the judges in the P-bars so Well' that he got a 288 for another first place. Jan almost had third laurel to rest upon in the horizontal bar event, but was .ten points' behind his old nemesis, Hale Lewis of Navy, with, a 276. . Karl Schwenzfeier, who is much smaller than his name implies, gave the Nittanies a shot in the arm with his quadruple success. Karl finished fourth in the free exercises and the parallel bars events, and secured fifths in the rings an . d-iti She all.around events. Jiin "The Wedge" • Hazen, king of • flyingr!ngdom in the East, would have had • a good ; ' chance to annex the national title too, Wettstone said, if ,his poor dismount hadn't knocked too many points off his final,score. As it is, Jinx has become the 'nation's third-bet' ringman, which is nothing to be down in the dumps about, either. According to Coach Wettstone, the.best Lion performance was turned'in:hy Cronstedt on the parallels. "Jan's- work on the P-bars was the besthe has done in his career up here, - and a real , thing of bea:uty, the mentor, said. Ah, but then that 'whole• Meet was a thing of beauty too, Genet N . CA.4,:,..:',,WrO.tiirig champions THE DAILY POLT-iNGIAN. STATE COLLEGE. PENNSYLVANIA By SAM PROCOPIO —Photo by Rosenberg. Navord Nalan (130). Michigan;' Len DeAugustino (137), Lock Haven; Fr ank Bettucci (147), Cornell most outstanding wrestler; Jim Harmon (157). lowa State Teachers; Don' Dick ason (167), Cornell; Ned Blass (177), Oklahoma A&M; Hud Samson (191), Penn State; and Dan McNair, (Hwt.), A f uburn. Samson is holding the team trophy. in the East's grand finale are the South and mid-West teams which aided in dethroning the Sooners. Still like the Easterns' one question remains in the minds of the some 15,000 fans—a record for any national tournament w h o witnessed th e two-day affair. Does a defending champion (de serve the winning verdict when he battles his foe to a draw? - This situation confronted two defending champions, Joe Le myre of Pepn State and Gene Nicks of Oklahoma A&M. Sur prisingly enough both decisions went the. other way. The more depressing reve r s al was Le myre's, however. Dickason Proclaimed Winner In Lemyre's case, not only was he defending champion but the barrel-chested 167-pounder had some 'odd 40 seconds riding time —not enough for time advantage —and had a questionable reversal and ,an escape while going off the edge of the mat. Dickason, at the disadvantage position, on the oth er hand, came close only to an escape. Nevertheless, Referee Frankett came to the center of the mat to raise . the arm of Don Dickason as winner. Dickason Jinx to Joe A sidelight to the unfortunate decision, however, was the fact that Frankett was misled on who had the first takedown. Itwas reported he reversed his decision because Dickason had , a take down ,to Lemyre's reverse. But the official scoring reads Joe Le myre a take down and Dickason a reversal. The oddity of this decision was that Lemyre was victimized twice to this same 167-pounder. The last time it occurred was at the East erns when Referee Deßattista held up the arm of Dickason. It may be recalled that Lemyre de feated his Cornell foe, 6-2, in dual meet competition earlier in the season. Coach .Jiro Miller of Cornell and Has Captured Championship his three matmen were the sur prise of the tournament. Although he was one of the few coaches with less than four entries, Mil ler's representatives came in a close third with a total of 13 team points and two individual cham pions. Frank "The Bull" Bettucci, 147-pounder, was the Ithacan's other crown-bearer. Bettucci, the EIWA's most out standing wrestler, added another laurel in taking the NCAA's out standing wrestler trophy and be came the East's only double win ner jn 23 years. In fact, he stands alone as far as the South and mid West are concerned. Only a few matmen, if any, have accomplish ed this feat from the West. Of the ten individual champions only three were not major con ference titlists ,this past season. They are 157-pound Jim Harmon of lowa State Teachers, 177-pound Ned Blass of Oklahoma A&M, and 191-pound Hud Samson of Penn State. In handling the largest num ber of entries in a n y national tournament Penn State officials were • complimented by many Five Teams Operi Spring. Seasons Following Vacation Five inter-collegiate varsity sports—baseball, lacrosse, track; golf, and tennis—will open their seasons after the Easter vacation. Joe Bedenk's baseball team will meet Lehigh April 10 on the Beaver Field diamond and then will take on Villanova the follow ing day. The Lions .will the season as defending NCAA Dis trict 2 champions. Here is the complete 21-game schedule: April 10—Lehigh home 11—Villanova home 14—W. Maryland home 17—Lafayette Easton 18—Rutgers New Brunswick, N.J. 22—American home 23—Gettysburg home 23—Penn Phila. 29—Bucknell home May— I—Georgetown home 2-Georgetown home s—Navy Annapolis B—Pittsburgh home 9—Pittsburgh home 12—Dickinson home 15—Colgate N.Y. 16-:-Syracuse (DH) N.Y. 20—West Virginia (DH) West Virginia 23—Temple Phila. On April 10, Nick Thiel's la crosse squad will also get its 1953 season under way. The stickmen are scheduled to meet Swarth more at the . Garnets' home field. They will play an eight-game schedule, lour of them at hoine. Chick Werner will take his• but door track team to Philadelphia, April 24 and 25 to compete in the Penn Relays. The thihclads are booked for five dual meets fol lowing the relays and will end the season with the IC4A chani nionshios in New York City, April 29 and 30. - Sherm Fogg's tennis squad is slated to get 'started April 21 aclainst Bucknell at Lewisburg, while the golf team will -begin-its camnaivn, under Bob Rtherford, April 22, meeting Pitt on the Penn State links. _ Art.;elle Tops hi Fouls Penn State's JeSse Arnelle, who had difficulty with his foul shoot ing last year, clicked on 34 of his first 40 attempts this season to land among the nation's - leaders. Coaches and reporters for the or derly fashion in which the tourn ament was run. Once again this scribe came in contact with the Bethlehem Globe-Times sports reporter who gave Speidel's three-time EIWA champs th e finest compliment when he said at the Eastern's: "Penn State is the only team that wrestles." When questioned how he felt about the final NCAA results he replied: "I'm glad." PAGE SEMI
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers