Young Penn wrestlers struggle, fall to Cornell

Missing key veteran wrestlers and two team captains, the No. 14-ranked Penn wrestling team entered the Ivy League Kickoff Classic at Princeton, N.J., Saturday knowing its fate rested on the shoulders of a younger, inexperienced core. Without the services of All-American captain Brandon Slay, due to future tournament obligations, and the injured captain Andrei Rodzianko and junior Brett Matter, the Quakers sent 18 athletes with a combined three years of starting experience to New Jersey. They finished a disappointing second, behind Cornell. Steve Walker and Bandele Adeniyi-Bada made the most of their time in the spotlight, taking individual titles in the 126-pound and heavyweight divisions. Walker, a second-team All-Ivy selection last year, started this season with an emphatic note, dominating his three competitors on the way to the title -- not giving up a point until the final round. Walker's opponents, wary of his ability and ranking, tried to frustrate him by using defensive tactics, but Walker rolled into the finals where he defeated teammate James Brennan, 5-3. Brennan made it an all-Penn final after defeating Cornell's Nate Rupp, who is ranked No. 2 in the East. "Walker handled [his opponents' tactics] really well," Penn coach Roger Reina said. "He entered the competition with the mindset of a champion, and it came out that way." Adeniyi-Bada overwhelmed his heavyweight competition, winning the title in his first tournament as a starter with a 17-2 technical fall victory over Harvard's Rob Durbin. "In the championship match, I just needed to step it up and build up from the wins," Adeniyi-Bada said. "It was just [a matter of] doing the extra whatever to win it." The 275-pound junior focused on the mental aspects in his preliminary matches, but put in all together for an impressive showing in the final. "He looked awesome in the finals," Penn captain Mark Piotrowsky said. "He showed lots of confidence in himself." Piotrowsky (134) and freshman Rick Springman (158) earned second-place finishes for the Quakers, along with Brennan. Piotrowsky lost in the final round to Harvard's Dustin DiNunzio in a highly anticipated match between the 15th- and ninth-ranked wrestlers in the nation at 134 pounds. However, the match fell short of expectations, as DiNunzio caught Piotrowsky with a good move and pinned him just 1:36 into the match. "A match so many anticipated never really happened, just a minute and a half of a seven-minute match" Reina said. "But they have several chances to meet again." Springman performed well in his first collegiate competition, defeating the highest nationally ranked wrestler at the Kickoff Classic, Brown's defending Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association champion Tivon Abel, before falling in the finals to Harvard's Joey Killar, 13-7. "He showed a lot of mental toughness and that he doesn't want to take a back seat to anyone," said Reina. The Quakers had four wrestlers take third place in their divisions, Jason Nagle (118), Jon Gough (142), Yoshi Nakamura (150) and Ryan Slack (177). Although the Red and Blue hoped to open their season on a higher note, they do not view Saturday's second-place finish negatively. "Yes, we wanted to win, but at the same time, we didn't have several key veteran athletes and still felt we had the ability to win despite of that," Reina said. With some of the veterans out of action, the young team proved it could compete with the best the Ivy League has to offer, despite its inexperience.

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