Wrestling dropped by host Iowa

The Penn wrestling team imagined itself in only one light Saturday, as it entered the Cliff Keen National Wrestlers Coaches Association National Dual Meet Championships in Iowa City, Iowa: a team on the rise. Coming off a road trip which pitted them against the top teams in the country and ranked an unprecedented 12th nationally, the Quakers felt ready to face the challenge and become the first Ivy League team to ever place in the national duals. But there to give Penn a hearty welcome in the very first round of competition was host Iowa. The Hawkeyes were ranked No. 2 in the country at the time and had lost only two times ever at their home, Carver-Hawkeye Arena. A tough draw for the Quakers, no doubt, who had already seen No. 4 Arizona State, as well as nationally respected Michigan State and Iowa State, and who had matched up well against those foes. "That was probably the toughest draw to get right off the bat," said captain Brandon Slay, ranked No. 3 in the country at 167 pounds. "But that was something that was very educational and beneficial for our team to do." Penn fell 30-3 to the Hawkeyes, winning only one match out of ten. The Quakers fought hard and kept most of the matches very close. But they could not come up with the goods at the end of the bouts, save Mike Fickell (177 pounds), who defeated Lee Weber 10-8 to earn Penn its only points. "A lot of our matches were close, but we lost that dual because we didn't step it up in a lot of critical situations," Slay said. "When we were close right there at the end of the match, the Iowa guys stepped up and pulled it out instead of our guys stepping it up and pulling it out." Slay himself lost a tough bout, falling to top-ranked Joe Williams 5-3. Williams and Slay faced off once previously, in the finals of the Midlands Open, where Williams came out the victor 5-3 as well. The match bore eerie resemblances to the Midlands confrontation, as Williams bested Slay with two quick shots once again. Slay will get a chance to avenge the defeats at the National All-Star Meet in February in what may be a preview of the NCAA Championship final. "Next time I've got to get a takedown on him and I've got to wrestle better defense," Slay said. "If I want to be the best wrestler in the country? I'm going to have step it up in those close situations." Penn coach Roger Reina was not disheartened at the prospect of facing Iowa first. In fact, he looked forward to it. "I had written the guys over the summer to try and imagine the opportunity of wrestling Iowa at Iowa," Reina said. "I was happy to draw them." Reina thought his wrestlers performed well against the Hawkeyes, but lamented the inability to convert in pressure situations. One such case was a near pin by Andrei Rodzianko (190) of the defending national champ, Lee Fullhart. "We wrestled pretty well, but we lost the vast majority of those critical situations that determined the close matches," Reina said. After the first round setback, Penn took on San Francisco State in the first consolation round. Coming out stronger and more confident against the No. 1 ranked team in Division II, the Quakers bounced back with a 28-6 drubbing. San Francisco State only mustered two victories, against two of Penn's non-starting competitors. "We came out really confident against that team," Slay said. "We just put it to them hard." Highlighting the second dual match was freshman Justin Bravo's (118) 7-4 victory over Damon Broadbent. Broadbent had beaten Bravo at the Midlands, preventing Bravo from reaching the placing rounds. Penn went into the second consolation round against West Virginia hoping to reach the placing rounds. West Virginia, however, squeaked out a 20-19 victory and ended Penn's competition. The Quakers jumped out to a 9-0 lead on the strength of Bravo's pin against Angelo Zegarelli, and Steve Walker's (126) 7-5 win over Bob Patensky. Penn lost its momentum quickly, though, with losses by Mark Piotrowsky (134), an overtime pin against Yoshi Nakamura (142) and major decision losses by Tim Ortman (150) and Rick Springman (158). Now down 17-9, the Quakers got a major decision win from Slay to pull within 17-13. Mike Fickell lost in a decision to make the score 20-13. Six points from regular decision wins by Rodzianko and heavyweight Bandele Adeniyi-Bada were not enough, bringing the final to 20-19 in favor of West Virginia. "It was just a hard weekend to swallow," Slay said. "We were there at the end of the dual meets sitting there watching West Virginia compete for fifth and sixth place. "We were sitting there watching Arizona State compete for seventh and eighth place knowing that we should have been there." Overall, Reina was satisfied with his team's competitiveness, but stressed the need to finish out matches and convert lost opportunities. "The lesson is that there's really not very much separating us from teams that finish in the top six in the country," he said. "The difference is recognizing and capitalizing on critical situations." The Quakers will take the lessons they learned into the bulk of their dual meet season, which will include most of their Ivy and Eastern competition.