Slay flattens No. 3 Catrabone to win All-Star Tournament

By Brian Hindo Chalk up another accolade for senior wrestling captain Brandon Slay. Slay, whose wrestling resume already includes an All-American designation, an NCAA finals appearance and the Ivy League's Wrestler of the Year, shuffled off to Buffalo, N.Y., last Monday to compete in the National Wrestling Coaches Association All-Star Tournament. Slay made the trip to the tournament, held this year at SUNY Buffalo, after becoming the all-time Penn wins leader with his 97th career victory last Saturday against Columbia's Aaron Greco. Every year the NWCA selects the top two wrestlers at each weight class to compete. Slay was the first Penn wrestler ever invited to the All-Star meet. He had expected to face Iowa's Joe Williams, the No. 1 ranked wrestler at 167 pounds who beat Slay twice this season, but Williams decided against competing in the meet. Instead, Slay, currently ranked No. 4 at 167, was set to face Michigan's No. 3 Jeff Catrabone. Although a third match with Williams was much anticipated, Slay expressed delight in facing Catrabone, whom Slay defeated last year in the NCAA Championship Tournament en route to a second place finish. The match, hotly contested throughout, was tied 1-1 with 30 seconds left in the third and final period. Slay then made a shot and took Catrabone down. The takedown took about 15 seconds to complete and Slay held him down for another 10, after which the referee signaled with :02 remaining in the match that Slay got two points for a 3-1 victory. Slay, now 18-5 in the year, felt facing Catrabone would do him more good than facing Williams again. Since Williams beat him twice already, Slay said, he felt beating Williams would not affect the rankings. However, with Monday's victory, Slay stands to move past Catrabone in the rankings. "The fact that I beat him makes the rankings more clear," Slay said. So Slay gets to add an All-Star Championship to his growing list of individual achievements. But he says that this one stands out from the others. "Everything is all coming together so fast," Slay said. "All my achievements are special in different ways. At the All-Star meet, it was neat to wear the Penn singlet out there in the midst of all the best wrestlers and coaches in the country." Slay was happy enough to be the first Penn wrestler selected to the NWCA All-Star meet and the lone Ivy League representative, but, as he said, "winning made the trip even better."