Wrestlers measure potential

The opening event of a season is usually a time for learning. It's a time for coaches and athletes to experiment, observe and evaluate. The East Stroudsburg Open on Saturday was the ideal season opener for the Penn wrestling team. The event served as a measuring stick for the Quakers to see how they stacked up in their quest for a national ranking. Among the 460 competitors were two national champions and a sprinkling of All-Americans. The event also featured such national powers as Penn State, North Carolina and Virginia. "It's one of the toughest tournaments in the East," senior co-captain Brian Butler said. "It's definitely major league." While Penn did not have any individual champions, the Quakers did show good team depth. Thirteen Penn wrestlers finished in the top 12 in their weight classes. "I was happy to see them perform as they did," Penn coach Roger Reina said. "We stacked up well. But I would have been happy to have some wrestlers advance to the championships. We just came up a little bit short in some key matches." The closest the Quakers came to winning any individual championship was the semifinals. Junior Clinton Matter reached the semis before losing a 2-1 decision to Penn State's Glen Pritzlaff, the top high school recruit in the country last year. Matter eventually finished fourth in the 167-pound bracket. The other Penn semifinalist was Butler, who finished third in the 190-pound class. Butler took the early lead in his semifinal match against Nick Szerlip, the No. 1 seed from Columbia, but Szerlip took advantage of Butler's eagerness and came back to win. "That match was a disaster," Butler said. "I was really hypersensitive. I wanted to win so bad I was trying to catch him, and that left me open. I was too anxious to blow it open and that hurt me." The loss was disappointing to Butler, but he came back to win his third-place match with an overtime pin of North Carolina's Tony Hanusa, who was ranked 10th in the country. "I went there to win," said Butler, who was ranked as high as 14th in the nation last year. "I was kind of down about going for third. But I managed to come back and win. I think it was good for me to come back." While veterans like Butler and Matter used Saturday's event to prepare for the rest of the season, the meet was also helpful to the Penn freshmen getting their first taste of collegiate wrestling. At least one freshman enjoyed that taste. Randall Braunfeld opened with a pin of the No. 3 seed in the 118-pound bracket and advanced to the quarterfinals in what Reina called a "really strong performance." "I just didn't know what to expect," Braunfeld said. "I just went out and wrestled." Being exposed to quality competition in his first meet was a " great experience," Braunfeld said. He and the rest of the team gained a lot from participating in the event, regardless of whether they won or lost. "You learn a lot competing at such a high level of competition," Braunfeld said. "It's frustrating because you're not always winning, but it's rewarding because you're learning a lot." "We were looking to get a lot of people a lot of experience," Butler said. "This stuff is all preparation for later in the season."