NCAA Wrestling Championships: Penn State Clinches Back-To-Back Titles

Barring a loss of team points via penalty in Saturday night's title matches, Penn State has clinched its second-consecutive NCAA wrestling championship.

The Nittany Lions, who will send five wrestlers to the individual championships on Saturday night, have 128.5 team points to Minnesota's 113.5 as of this posting. That's an insurmountable margin unless the Lions are penalized. And even if they are, the five championship wrestlers will likely score more than enough points to hold the Golden Gophers off.

Dylan Alton was Penn State's only competitor in the morning session, and his third place finish put the Lions unofficially over the top. Alton went 2-0 on the day, taking vicotry against American's Ganbayar Sanjaa, 7-5, before defeating Northwestern's Jason Welch, 6-2.

All eyes now turn to the night session's championship matches, which begin at 6:30 p.m. and can be seen on ESPNU. Nico Megaludis will face Iowa's Matt McDonough at 125 pounds, Frank Molinaro will wrestle Minnesota's Dylan Ness at 149 pounds and David Taylor will take on Lehigh's Brandon Hatchett at 165 pounds. Ed Ruth's bout against Stanford's Nick Amuchastegi and Quentin Wright's showdown with Cornell's Steve Bosak round out the slate of matches for the Lions.

For updates on the championship matches on Saturday night, be sure to stay tuned to SB Nation Pittsburgh.