Lehigh rivalry heats up the Palestra this Sunday

The 15th-ranked Quakers will battle the Engineers for Eastern supremacy Sunday. Forget about Duke-UNC. Forget about Florida-Florida State. Even Harvard-Yale -- forget about it. Ask any Penn wrestler what the most intense college rivalry is and he will say it's Penn-Lehigh. The latest incarnation of this heated local rivalry will occur Sunday at 3 p.m., when Lehigh (9-6) visits the Palestra for Penn's (11-3) final home dual meet of the season. Penn and Lehigh's rivalry has grown steadily since the emergence of Penn as a national power over the last few years. It's reportedly gotten so intense that the Engineers have a "Beat Penn" banner hanging in their locker room. Lately the Quakers and Lehigh have been seesawing back and forth for Eastern Pennsylvania bragging rights, without one team asserting itself as the frontrunner. Three years ago, Lehigh won a team Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA) championship. Penn, however, played the spoiler in 1996, sweeping Lehigh in a dual meet and at the EIWA Championships. In 1997, the heavily favored Quakers went to Lehigh and lost. But later that season, the Red and Blue returned in the EIWA Championships at the Palestra and stomped second-place Lehigh by 79.5 points. Senior captain Brandon Slay has seen the rivalry grow during his five years at Penn. "In the past, Lehigh always smoked Penn; it wasn't even close," he said. "But now, Penn wants Lehigh on our schedule and they want us on their schedule because it's such an intense rivalry. The Penn-Lehigh mystique appeared relatively quickly once Penn rose to prominence first in the East and then nationally. In fact, when Penn coach Roger Reina captained the Quakers wrestling team in 1984, Lehigh was not even on Penn's schedule. Even the freshmen on the team have learned about the rivalry quickly. "You hear about it all the time, first and second in the EIWA all the time going at it," freshman Justin Bravo, who is currently ranked fifth in the EIWA at 118 pounds, said. "We know that they are a big rivalry, we just have to go out there and get the job done." Getting the job done -- a victory against the Engineers -- would mean more to the Quakers than just simple bragging rights. Given the high placings of both teams in the EIWA rankings, Sunday's dual meet has important ramifications with the EIWA Championships happening March 6-7 at Lehigh. "One thing that's definitely important is that the matches this weekend will play into seeding at the Eastern Championships," Reina said. "But I think in the hearts of most of our athletes, they really want to avenge that dual meet loss that took place at Lehigh last year." Lehigh brings a different style of wrestling than the Quakers are accustomed to seeing. Penn has been the favorite in most of its dual matches, leading its underdog opponents to wrestle defensively, hoping to keep the matches close. "I don't think they will be real defensive," said senior captain Andrei Rodzianko. "Hopefully these guys will open up more and wrestle with us. That makes it more exciting for everyone, the wrestlers and the fans." The Quakers are glad they have the chance to wrestle Lehigh at home before they head to Lehigh for the EIWA Championships. "I think it's huge [to wrestle Lehigh at home]," Slay said. "We wrestled them there last year and we didn't have that great of a match, so now we're bringing them here to our home -- things are going to be different this year." For success Sunday, the Quakers want to come out and establish an early lead, taking control of the match with lower weight victories. "It's very important [to set the tone]," said Bravo, who will likely be Penn's first wrestler Sunday. "When the first guy goes out there and he wins a good match, the team gets pumped, the momentum starts flowing on our team's side." Although Penn and Lehigh have traded wins for much of the last five years, Penn is, for now, in the driver's seat. The next chapter in the Penn-Lehigh saga could not come at a more critical time for either team. Both are jockeying for position in the upcoming EIWA Championships and both hope to make a statement about Eastern superiority heading into the NCAA Championships.

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