Wrestling prepares for NCAAs

The Penn wrestling team hopes to use EIWAs as a platform to the NCAAs. It's that time of year again for the Penn wrestling team. The No. 15 Quakers begin their second season tomorrow when they travel to Bethlehem, PA, to try and capture their third consecutive Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA) Championship at Lehigh University. For the past two years, Penn has owned the EIWA, winning the 1997 Championships at the Palestra with a tournament record 183.5 team points. The Quakers set the record for largest margin of victory at the EIWAs, smoking second-place finisher Lehigh by 79.5 points. Penn also lays claim to the highest cumulative winning percentage over the past four years in the EIWA. But Penn coach Roger Reina is quick to point out that history does not win titles. "Last year was last year," Reina said. "This year we have zero points, and every other team has zero points, so last year has absolutely no bearing on what happens [tomorrow] and Saturday." This year's EIWA Championships have a drastically different look for the Quakers. Instead of the friendly confines of the Palestra, they travel to Lehigh. The No. 17 Engineers are annually one of their toughest Eastern rivals and the second-ranked team in the EIWA. "I hope it's as tough a crowd as we've faced since we were out at Iowa," Reina said. "The tougher it is, the better it will prepare our guys for the NCAA Championships." Senior captain and defending EIWA champ Brandon Slay didn't place much emphasis on the crowd either. "All the fans will be cheering against us no matter who we wrestle," Slay said. "We have to take that anger and hostility and use that as a positive -- something to get us pumped before our matches." Battling the hostile, Engineer-laden crowds is all the more difficult for the Red and Blue, whose 10-man lineup at Lehigh includes three freshmen and two sophomores. Reina, however, downplays the youth issue. "I think in the beginning of the year you could have said that this team is young, but at this point in the year with the schedule that they've been through, they are not a young team anymore," Reina said. "They are as experienced as any team that Penn has put on the mat." Reina credits Penn's schedule, which included matches against six of the top 10 teams in the nation, for the quick learning of its youthful core. Penn's only three dual meet losses came against No. 1 Oklahoma State, No. 2 Iowa at Iowa City and a 20-19 setback against No. 8 West Virginia. One of the not-so-freshmen competing at Lehigh this weekend is Yoshi Nakamura, who is coming off an injury and will see his first action in about a month. Nakamura, currently ranked second in the EIWA in the 142-lb. division, will not have much of a learning curve against his main competitor, Ryan Bernholz, Lehigh's No. 1. Bernholz defeated Penn freshman Martine Apodaca 11-5 during the Penn-Lehigh dual meet. But Reina remains relaxed with Nakamura at 142. "I think his toughest opponent will be himself," Reina said. "[He needs] simply to keep his concentration and to keep his focus and perform to the best of his abilities. "If he does that, he'll win the tournament," Reina said. Wrestlers can qualify for the NCAA tournament with a finals appearance at Lehigh or, in some of the stronger weight classes, a solid semifinal showing. The Quakers feel confident that they can reach one of their preseason goals of qualifying all 10 wrestlers for the NCAAs. "It's definitely a very reasonable goal," said EIWA No. 6 sophomore Tim Ortman, who wrestles this weekend at 150 pounds. "If everybody wrestles to the level they are capable of, I think we can do it. "I'm confident in everybody else, and I hope they are confident in me. Starting at 118 [pounds], if we can just keep on winning, everybody can feed off the next guy." Up and down the lineup, Penn has the deepest team in the EIWA. At 118 pounds, freshman Justin Bravo is ranked No. 5 in the EIWA and is on a hot streak, with impressive wins against Lehigh and Brown. Steve Walker (126) is a heavy favorite, along with Slay (167) and captain Andrei Rodzianko (190). Junior captain Mark Piotrowsky is locked in a three-man race at 134 pounds. EIWA No. 2 Piotrowsky has lost three times this year to Harvard's No. 1 Dustin DeNunzio, but beat Lehigh's No. 3 Dave Esposito easily 7-1 at the Palestra. Further muddying up the 134-lb. picture, Esposito has a victory over DeNunzio this year. Sophomore Ortman (150) has had wins against much of his competition, but lost to Lehigh's No. 1 Chris Ayres 7-3 earlier in the year. Freshman Rick Springman heads into Lehigh ranked third in the East and has defeated top-ranked Tivon Abel of Brown, but has dropped two bouts to No. 2 Joe Killar of Harvard. Heavyweight Bandele Adeniyi-Bada represents Penn in a tough division, which includes national No. 3 Jason Gleasman of Syracuse and national No. 4 Bill Closson of Lehigh. The Quakers have the utmost confidence that they will three-peat as EIWA champs. They have already beaten every team they are going to face this weekend, and their schedule-strength is unparalleled among EIWA teams. "It was exciting winning it at home last year, but it will be pretty neat to go into someone else's gym and take the title," Ortman said. "I think we're going to blow everybody else out. "It'll be fun to do that in Lehigh's gym."

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