Wrestling takes two in Mass., one at Brown

Last weekend the Penn wrestling team put to rest any questions it may have left as to its position in the Ivy League. Last weekend's 27-10 victory over Brown and 21-9 victory over Harvard established Penn as the Ivy League elite and may push the Quakers ahead of Lehigh in the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association rankings. Lehigh had supplanted Penn as the top-ranked team in the East, but after the Engineers' loss to Harvard last week and Penn's win against the Crimson, Penn stands to reclaim the No. 1 spot in the EIWA. Going into the weekend's competition, the Quakers were unsatisfied with their efforts against Ivy foes Cornell and Columbia two weekends ago. Although they came out with two wins, they felt as if they performed at their opponents' level. Penn came out strong against Brown Friday night, getting off to an 11-0 lead after a Justin Bravo (118 pounds) pin and a Steve Walker 21-4 technical fall victory. Brown did come back with two consecutive wins to make the score 11-6. Ernest DeLeon scored a "surprising" 6-5 victory against Mark Piotrowsky (134), according to Penn coach Roger Reina, and freshman Rick Springman (158) lost 8-3 to the EIWA No. 1 Tivon Abel. But Brown never could overcome the early deficit or Penn's depth at the heavier weights. "It was a pretty dominating match for us," senior captain Brandon Slay (167), who won his match 7-4, said. "We wanted to prove that we were a better team than what we showed [previously]." "We had a convincing victory, but everyone felt they could have earned more bonus team points [with] pins and major decisions," said heavyweight Bandele Adeniyi-Bada. Still, the win boosted the Quakers' confidence, according to Reina, and took them to Harvard on a high note. At Harvard, Penn encountered a vocal, highly partisan crowd and a team ready to fight. "We knew Harvard was going to come after us," Reina said. "This was one of the biggest meets of the year for them." "It was a loud, hostile crowd, and all we had was our team," Adeniyi-Bada said. "The Harvard kids were real intense, but that raised us to another level." Although Penn prevailed 21-9, the match was close throughout. Nine of the ten bouts were decided by three points or less. "[Harvard] didn't have anything to lose. They haven't won the Ivy League since I don't know when," Slay said. "They fought hard, but fortunately we wrestled better in the tight situations." The match was tied 9-9, but Penn swept the four remaining bouts to take the last 12 points. With the victory, Penn dashed No. 24 Harvard's hopes of a second straight upset of a nationally-ranked team. "They knew how to wrestle a lot of our guys," senior captain Andrei Rodzianko said. "But we showed them who was tougher." The Quakers made the adjustments necessary to compensate for Harvard's preparation. "They knew what offense we were going to use and defended it well," said Slay, whose 6-5 overtime victory gave him 100 career victories at Penn. "We didn't get too frustrated and kept trying to score. We eventually got the points and takedowns we needed." Reina was impressed with his team's effort. "What was most enjoyable [about the win] was the fact that there were tremendously close matches and we came out on top of almost all of those," Reiba said. Also at Cambridge was UMass-Lowell, whom the Quakers trounced 39-6, using many younger and inexperienced wrestlers. Penn did what it hoped to do over the weekend -- prove it was without a doubt "The Team" in the Ivy League. With only one Ivy match left against Princeton, Penn is in position to finish with a perfect conference record and three-peat as Ivy champs.

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