IOWA CITY, Iowa — Frank Molinaro and his wife were walking their dog in 2013 when a thought occurred to this wrestler.
He felt pent up and he wanted to keep wrestling even though his college career was ending. And now, in 2016, Molinaro, a Nittany Lion Wrestling Club product, has a shot to qualify for the Olympic Games after winning the Olympic Team Trials at 65 kilograms.
“At that point [2013], I was hungry,” said Molinaro, who took the title Saturday as the No. 9 seed. “I was nobody at that time.”
He’s certainly somebody now. Molinaro downed Team Mercury Wrestling Club’s Aaron Pico, a 19-year-old fan favorite and the hot hand of the day, to take the title and earn a trip to Mongolia for an Olympic qualifier.
Facing a 1-0 deficit heading into the second bout of a best-of-three final, Molinaro pushed Pico to a third decisive round.
In the first bout, Pico used a late crotch lift to flip Molinaro to his back and scored two to break a 2-2 tie. Molinaro had criteria over Pico and would have won if not for Pico’s late move.
Pico again jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the second bout, but Molinaro was not to be denied.
He answered with two counters to take a 4-2 lead, gave up a shot-clock point to Pico, and held on to win the second bout, 4-3.
The final round followed a similar script, as Molinaro, who won three other matches by criteria on the day, finished off Pico, and sent fans streaming to the exits, 4-4 on criteria.
Again, he went down early, and again he rallied. A four-point move gave him a 4-1 lead over Pico, and it proved to be enough to achieve what Molinaro believed he could.
The road to Rio stop in Iowa City was anything but easy for Molinaro, who also took down No. 1-seeded Brent Metcalf, a Hawkeye Wrestling Club member, on his way to the title.
“A lot of things went haywire in that weight class and it just goes to show that anything can happen and that’s why you have to win match number one, match number two and put yourself in position for contention,” Metcalf said after his bout with Molinaro.
Metcalf’s statement echoed in Molinaro’s performance Saturday.
This Nittany Lions product knows he is not done. His spot in Rio is anything but a guarantee. He must still win the qualifier in Mongolia.
“I’ve got to get my mind ready and my body ready and go kick some butt in Mongolia,” he said.
Earlier in the day, Molinaro’s 65-kilogram teammate, Zain Retherford, earned a spot on the national team with a third-place finish.
Retherford, another Penn State product who won the NCAA title at 149 pounds in March, opened his Olympic trial effort with a 9-2 decision over Team Mercury Wrestling Club’s James Green, the 70-kilo bronze medalist at the 2015 World Championships.
In the quarterfinals, Logan Stieber, an Ohio State graduate and four-time NCAA champion with whom Retherford has grappled before in folk style, relegated the Nittany Lions sophomore to the consolation bracket.
Retherford sent his next two opponents packing with decisions of 7-2 and 6-3.
He advanced to the consolation finals by way of Reece Humphrey’s injury default.
The consolation finals saw a flurry of activity and one competitor desperately trying to hold off another. Jimmy Kennedy, Retherford’s consolation final opponent, opened the scoring with one point.
With a 1-0 lead early in the match, Kennedy then struggled to score. Retherford landed two one-point moves, and the two traded shots. Facing a 2-2 tie but holding criteria, Retherford held off a late flurry of activity from Kennedy to secure third place and a spot on the U.S. national team.
First Published: April 10, 2016, 4:00 a.m.
