Wrestling harvests Garden State recruits

Eight of coach Roger Reina's eleven incoming freshmen wrestlers are New Jersey natives. Eight of coach Roger Reina's 38 wrestlers for the 1998-99 season were from New Jersey. This season there will be eight New Jersey wrestlers in Penn's freshmen class alone. Reina secured a recruiting class of 11 for the 1999-2000 season -- of which nearly three-quarters graduated from high school in the Garden State. "There wasn't any particular design," Reina said of the geographic distribution of the Class of 2003. "Basically, in our recruiting, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Ohio are the prime three states we've focused on in the last five years or so and they seem to produce the best prospects for our program." This recruiting class is led by lighter wrestlers, as only two of the recruits are expected to wrestle in the four heaviest weight classes. Heavyweight Caleb Race alone might make up for Penn's lack of quantity in the upper weights, however. Race, who lives in North Carolina but attended high school at The Miller School in Virginia, was honored as an All-American in both Freestyle and Greco-Roman categories. "It's difficult enough to place in either one of those events, but to place in both of those events -- and they both transpire in the same week -- it's physically very grueling," Reina said. "I was really impressed with him." Race is not expected to crack Penn's lineup this season, but is the top candidate to replace senior Bandele Adeniyi-Bada as the Quakers' heavyweight in the fall of 2000. The new wrestling recruits can make an immediate impact in the 141-pound weight class,however; the graduation of Mark Piotrowsky leaves a huge hole for the Quakers. Senior James Brennan and Junior Martine Apodaca both may be certified at 141, but Reina does not rule out the possibility of starting a freshman. "The vacated weight class by Piotrowsky is one that is going to be up for grabs," Reina said. "We're going to have some freshmen vie for that spot." New Jerseyans Chris Brizzi and Joey Giuricich, as well as Tinley Park, Ill., native Kyle O'Neil, are expected to compete at 141 pounds. Brizzi finished second in the Freestyle division at Junior Nationals in the summer after his sophomore year in high school, but suffered a series of injuries that prevented him from continued dominance his junior year. The Ramsey, N.J., native returned to form last season, finishing third in the state tournament. Giuricich, meanwhile, has been a National Prep Champion and two-time runner-up in the National Prep tournament. He was also a National High School Championship finalist and New Jersey Junior National Team member. Ranked 10th nationally among high schoolers in his weight class by Intermat, Giuricich will be competing in the Junior Nationals this summer. O'Neil lost just seven of his 127 matches at Victor J. Andrew High School in Illinois. He finished in the top five in the state tournament in three years, including a second-place finish last season. The Illinois Junior National Team member has intensified his training this summer in preparation for both Junior Nationals and collegiate wrestling. "Unlike in high school where some good kids are wrestling with some average kids, everyone in the college wrestling room is really good," O'Neil said. Among the other incoming freshmen wrestlers is Governor Livingston High School graduate Brett Vanderveer, whom Reina considers a sleeper. The Berkeley Heights native was undefeated last year until losing in the semifinals of the state tournament, but lost three straight to end up in sixth place. "I didn't wrestle well in the semifinal match and gotten taken out a little mentally after losing a tough match," Vanderveer said. Vanderveer did recover to place second in the state freestyle tournament, qualifying for Junior Nationals this summer. Rounding out the list of recruits are New Jerseyans Ryan Anderson, Ethan Bullock, Patrick Hu, Matt Koppenheffer and John McRoberts, as well as Hanover, Pa., native Chris Hanlon. Anderson, a projected 149-pounder, won 100 matches in his high school and placed third at the Mid-Atlantic Championships. Hu wrestled at Parsippany High School, where Piotrowsky's father Fred is wrestling coach. Koppenheffer, McRoberts and Bullock are expected to wrestle in the middle weight classes, while Hanlon will wrestle at either 125 or 133 pounds. Overall, while solid, this recruiting class does not have the fanfare of the freshmen of 1997. That class, which included Justin Bravo, Yoshi Nakamura and Rick Springman, was ranked 11th nationally. "I'm not sure that they're going to be rated all that high nationally," Reina said. "But I think that their results by the time they're juniors or seniors will be every bit as high as any recruiting class that we've had coming in."