Wrestling bests Rider, wins Keystone Classic

The word "palestra" means "house of wrestling" in ancient Greek. This weekend, Penn's Palestra was indeed a wrestling house. The Penn wrestling team welcomed six nationally respected teams, Rider, Virginia, Wyoming, Army, American and Seton Hall, to West Philadelphia yesterday to compete in the Keystone Classic. Getting their first test of national-level competition, the Quakers edged Rider, taking the tournament by a score of 131.5 to 129. After finishing a disappointing second to Cornell at the Ivy League Kickoff Classic last weekend, the victory serves as a validation for the Quakers, who entered the season with a preseason ranking of 14th in the country by Amateur Wrestling News. "[The Kickoff Classic] made this tournament all the more important for us," said Penn senior captain Brandon Slay, who won the 177-pound division. "It was a good slap in the face for us going into this tournament." The victory was anything but certain for Penn, which trailed Rider going into the final round of competition. Penn needed victories in its matches at the 177, 190 and the heavyweight divisions in order to steal the win from Rider. Fortunately for the Quakers, Slay beat Rider's Leo Giel in the title match, and in third-place bouts Mike Fickell (190) defeated Rider's Shawn Scannell and Bandele Adeniyi-Bada (275) defeated Rider's Joe Klein. Penn also benefitted from wins by captain Mark Piotrowsky (134) and Steve Walker (126). Piotrowsky, who came into the tournament as the third seed, defeated both the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds on his way to the title. "Beating [first-seeded Jason Mutarelli of Virginia] was a good win in the finals," Piotrowsky said. "He'd beaten me last year at this tournament." The win had another element of redemption for Piotrowsky, who came off a disappointing loss to rival Dustin DeNunzio of Harvard at the Kickoff Classic. "I had to show I could come back from a letdown, and I wasn't going to stay down," Piotrowsky said. Walker, fresh off a tournament triumph last weekend, continued his winning ways, besting All-American John Carvalheira of Rider 3-1 in the finals. Penn's youth showed yesterday that it is quickly maturing. Freshmen Rick Springman (158) and Justin Bravo (118) both turned in second-place finishes for the Quakers. Sophomore James Brennan (126) and freshman Yoshi Nakamura (150) finished fourth and fifth in their divisions, respectively. "The freshmen are getting introduced to some real good competition," said Slay, who stressed the need for more experience. "You can't come in as a freshman and expect to dominate experienced college wrestlers." "There are only better things to come [from the younger wrestlers]," Brennan said. "The recruiting class speaks for itself (ranked 11th in the nation) and the summer weightlifting program got the sophomore class together." The younger members of the team were helped by the presence of All-American Slay and veteran Fickell, who competed in their first tournaments of the year. "[Slay] is a key for our team," Walker said. "He's the most successful guy on the team, so it's always good to have him in the lineup, plus his leadership ability." Penn coach Roger Reina agreed. "Certainly having those two back in the lineup was an opportunity to take a step towards where we ultimately want to be," Reina said. With its tournament victory over teams from many different conferences across the country, Penn rebounded from its Ivy League disappointment to attain national-level success. But the Quakers are not satisfied yet. "We're taking steps in the right direction," Piotrowsky said. "We're not quite where we want to be, but we're getting there fast."

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