Penn State's Heller hopes to get back to nationals
BY DOUG McKENZIE
Staff Writer

STEVE MANUEL/GOPSUSPORTS.COM Penn State senior Bryan Heller, a Rumson-Fair Haven graduate, reacts after pinning Iowa's Alex Tsirtsis during a senior day match on the Penn State campus on Feb. 4.

Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School gradutae Bryan Heller hopes to put an exclamation point on his college career this weekend, wrestling in the Big 10 Championships, in an effort to advance to the NCAA championships for a second time.

Heller, a senior at Penn State University, heads into the conference tournament brimming with confidence, having notched the biggest win of his career on Feb. 4 - a pin over returning All-American Alex Tsirtsis, of Iowa.

With the team score tied 3-3, Heller, a two-time Region VI champion for RFH in 2002 and 2003, took to the mat in his 141-pound match with Tsirtsis and caught him in a scramble from neutral to record the pin at 3:31. The pin caused the Nittany Lion crowd to erupt, and sparked Penn State, ranked 12th in the nation at the time, to a 24-13 win over sixth-ranked Iowa on senior day.

"He tried to roll me and I caught him and pinned him," said Heller. "I could hear the coaches yelling that he was pinned, and that was definitely the biggest rush I've ever had on a mat.

"He was ranked sixth in the country when I wrestled him," Heller added. "I wrestled him a couple of times before in high school in freestyle competitions, and he beat me twice.

"To do that on Senior Day, in my final match at Rec Hall, which is the top venue in the country in my opinion, was great."

The win improved his season record to 16-7, and his varsity career record at Penn State to 64-28.

Unfortunately, Heller followed that dramatic win with a pair of losses to wrestlers from Michigan and Michigan State the following weekend.

"The guy I lost to on [Feb. 18] is the Number 2 ranked 133-pounder in the country and he moved up a weight class, so I'm not really too worried about that one," Heller said. "In the loss on [Feb. 16], I got nervous, which is pretty uncharacteristic of me, normally.

"Overall I'm feeling confident, though," he added. "I want to place in the nationals, somewhere in the top eight, and become an all-American. That's the goal for every guy on this team. The top seven guys out of the 11 Big Ten schools will advance to nationals. I expect to qualify."

Just to be in position to qualify for the national championships is a dream come true for Heller, who was a bit overwhelmed when he first got to Penn State four years ago.

"I was two-time seventh-place finisher in the state in high school, and came to Penn State, which is in the best wrestling conference in the country," he said. "I didn't get a takedown in the first two months of practice, so I learned pretty quick how hard I was going to have to work."

And that hard work has led to a solid career as a Nittany Lion.

"I wasn't a starter last year, but I wrestled in 28 matches and went 26-4. I started at 133 as a sophomore and qualified for nationals by taking seventh in the Big 10. Then last year I lost in a wrestle-off at 133, then went up to 141, but there was a fifth-year senior at that spot, and we never wrestled-off."

This year, as the starter at 141, Heller has shown just how far he's come since his days at Rumson-Fair Haven.

"The majority of guys I wrestle with here were multiple state champions in high school, so to be able to work with them has helped me a lot," he said. "I've worked really hard and I'm very happy with what I've done since I got here."