Three in a row for wrestling at EIWAs

Penn's wrestling team earned its third EIWA title and will send five wrestlers to NCAAs. Three in a row is great, and five out of 10 ain't bad. At the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA) Championships at Lehigh University two weekends ago, the Penn wrestling team captured its third straight title. Since the inception of the EIWA tournament in 1905, no Penn team had ever won a league title until Reina's group started its rise to become the dominant wrestling program in the East with Ivy and EIWA Championship in 1996. The next two years have brought two more Ivy and EIWA title to the Quakers. Despite the euphoria over a third straight title, the Quakers fell short of their goal of qualifying all 10 competitors for the NCAA tournament, only sending five to compete at Nationals which are being held today through Saturday at Cleveland State. Wrestlers could qualify for the NCAAs with a first- or second-place finish in their weight class, or, in some particularly strong weight classes, a third-place finish. The usual suspects turned in their standard top-quality performances. Top-ranked seniors Steve Walker (126 pounds) and captain Brandon Slay (167 pounds) both lived up to their seedings, earning individual EIWA crowns. Walker had a relatively easy time reaching the finals, and eventually winning the title with a 6-4 decision over Cornell's Nate Rupp. Walker, who is 26-6 for the year, nearly won the Sheridan Award for the most falls in the least amount of time. His time of 6:02 for two falls was just short of Syracuse heavyweight Jason Gleasman's two falls in 5:40. Slay had better luck with the awards. The repeat EIWA champion won the Fletcher Award for the most career points in the EIWA tournament. Before taking the title the last two years, Slay finished third in 1994 and second in 1995. Slay did hit a bit of a road bump on the way to his championship in his finals match against Harvard's Ed Mosley. Up 6-3 with about a minute left in the bout, the referee gave Slay a stalling warning, and then assessed two one-point penalties for stalling against Slay, bringing the match score to 6-5. But Mosley, the 1996 158-pound EIWA Champion, was unable to score. "I wrestled kind of hesitantly, but I didn't really back up that much," said Slay, disputing the stalling calls. "I don't think I've been called for stalling maybe two or three times the whole year." Also garnering invitations to the NCAA championships were second place finishers Mark Piotrowsky (134), Andrei Rodzianko (190) and freshman Rick Springman (158). Piotrowsky had a turbulent ride to the finals, having to defeat Lehigh's EIWA third-ranked Dave Esposito on his home mats. In the finals he met a familiar, yet frustrating face in Harvard's Dustin DeNunzio. The nationally fourth-ranked DeNunzio has had Piotrowsky's number all year, beating him on three previous occasions. The finals bout was more of the same, DeNunzio prevailing in a close 5-3 finish. Springman, a true freshman, qualified for the NCAAs in his first try. Springman defeated second seed Joe Killar of Harvard, who had beaten Springman twice this year, on his way to the finals, where he lost to top seed and national No. 5 Tivon Abel of Brown. The success of Springman despite his youth and lack of collegiate experience did not surprise his teammates. "He's one of the hardest working guys in the [training] room," Piotrowsky said. "He can put [the second place finish] in the back of his mind and go out and become an all-American." It came as no surprise to Springman either. "I thought I could win the tournament, actually," he said. "In both [the semis and the finals] I felt that if a couple things changed I could have won." With his impressive results both at the EIWAs and throughout the year, Springman was named Ivy League Freshman of the Year. Springman joins elite Penn company with that award, as all-American Slay received the honor his freshman year, as well. As a team, the Quakers three-peated on the strength of their NCAA qualifiers and their other place-winners -- freshman Justin Bravo (118) and sophomore Tim Ortman's (150) fourth-place finishes, along with junior heavyweight Bandele Adeniyi-Bada and freshman Yoshi Nakamura's (142) sixth-place finishes. The final obstacle for Penn starts today with the preliminary rounds of the NCAA championships at Cleveland State. Three of the five Quakers traveling to that happening metropolis have had previous NCAA experience (captains Slay, Rodzianko and Piotrowsky). Steve Walker was an alternate at the tourney last year. Which leaves the youngster Springman as the sole representative without significant collegiate results. But he remains unphased. "We've wrestled with this kind of competition before, so? I'm not really that nervous," Springman said. The team veterans have taken Springman under their wing, preparing him for his first NCAA championships. "We've been telling him the main key is to be able to relax in the rounds and not focus all your attention on the big crowds," Piotrowsky said. "He has absolutely nothing to lose and he can? surprise some people." For Slay, the tournament holds the final piece in a grand puzzle -- a national championship. The title eluded him last year, as he lost in the finals by one point to Oklahoma State's Mark Branch. There is the possibility for a much anticipated finals matchup with the nation's No. 1, Iowa's Joe Williams -- a Chicago product. Williams has beaten Slay twice this year, 5-3. Slay admits he has pondered the matchup, but said, "It's not productive just to think of the guy you plan on wrestling in the finals. "You really have to be ready to wrestle one match at a time," he said. Whether or not a rematch with Williams is in the cards for Slay, as a team Penn has a very realistic shot of reaching yet another of its preseason goals -- placing in the nation's top 10. "The five guys that we have -- we can go out there and do some damage," Piotrowsky noted. "We could open some people's eyes." The Quakers are currently ranked 13th in the nation, and with strong showings all around and some help from higher-ranked programs they are capable of raising eyebrows.

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