Wrestling earns two Ivy wins

The Penn wrestling team improved to 3-0-1 in the Ivies by downing Brown and Harvard at home in the Palestra. It took 157-pounder Yoshi Nakamura less than three minutes to nail Brown's Chris Ayers to the mat in Friday's opening match, giving Penn a 6-0 lead over Brown. The Quakers never looked back. Penn (6-0-2, 3-0-1 Ivy League) fed off Nakamura's explosive start to down Ivy foes Brown (7-9, 1-1) and Harvard (5-4, 1-1) at the Palestra this weekend by a combined score of 50-22. Despite the two big victories, Penn coach Roger Reina was not completely satisfied with the team's performance. "Coming out of the Cornell meet, the main thing we've been concentrating on has been creating more offense," Reina said. "I think we might have hit 60 to 70 percent of the amount of offense I'd like to see in a match." That offensive mindset was evident in Nakamura's match Friday, but the Penn sophomore was not as aggressive on Saturday against Harvard's Kevin Kurtz. After two periods, Nakamura trailed 2-0, thanks to a stalling call and an escape for Kurtz. But Nakamura came back in dramatic fashion, taking down Kurtz at the mat's edge with 12 seconds left to tie the score and send it to sudden-death overtime. In OT, though, Kurtz took down No. 11 Nakamura to earn the win. Questionable officiating may have contributed to Kurtz's win, however. The second-period stalling call on Nakamura drew jeers from the crowd and exasperation from Reina. But the coach made no excuses. "If you don't want the official involved in the match you need to have a big enough pointspread," Reina said. "It's the responsibility of our guys to create enough of a lead that [the officials] can't make that much of a difference and we didn't do that." Officiating was also a factor in Friday's 125-lb. match, as Brown's Pete Poretta used two stalling points and a penalty point to beat Justin Bravo 8-2. "In this match Justin really never hit his stride," Reina said. "He [controlled] the first period, but the official started getting involved in the outcome and that was a distraction for Justin." Bravo rebounded on Saturday, soundly defeating Harvard's Kevin El-Hayek 16-6 in the opening match. The Quakers got off to a big lead against the Crimson, but consecutive Harvard victories at 174 and 184 cut their advantage to just two points. Senior tri-captain Andrei Rodzianko (197 lbs.) clinched the victory for Penn, though, when opponent Brad Soltis, down 10-2, was forced to withdraw with an injury. "I went on a follow-through shot at the same time he was coming in to take a shot," Rodzianko said. "I got a lot lower than him so his teeth kinda hit the back of my head. I think the back of my head got the better of his teeth." Harvard coach Jay Weiss was not happy about the incident, though he did not blame Rodzianko directly. "[Soltis] got his teeth jammed way back," Weiss said. "Rodzianko was in control and I just thought it was stupid -- he [Soltis] is in a lot of pain and I don't know what the orthodontists are going to do." Another of Penn's tri-captains, Brett Matter (149 lbs.), also had a strong showing this weekend. Though struggling lately, he got back on track with a 9-4 victory over nationally-ranked Joel Friedman of Harvard. "I liked the transition Brett Matter's making to being more offensive again," Reina said. Strong offense also helped Jason Nagle and Mike Gadsby pull off big upsets. Nagle, starting at 133 pounds for the injured James Brennan, knocked off Harvard's Matt Picarsic, ranked No. 3 in the EIWA, 8-4. Gadsby (184 lbs.) earned a hard-fought 5-4 win over another EIWA No. 3, Nate Burroughs of Brown. "Mike's been struggling lately so that was a real breakthrough win for him," Reina said. "[Burroughs] was a nationally-ranked opponent and Mike's gone close with several nationally ranked opponents earlier this year but wasn't able to come up with the takedowns to win it. Mike really turned the corner this weekend." Mark Piotrowsky (141 lbs.), the third of Penn's captains, came up short in his own bid to turn the corner this weekend. After beating Brown's Ernest DeLeon 5-1 on Friday, Piotrowsky lost 9-5 to Harvard's Dustin DeNunzio. "He's a tough kid," Piotrowsky said. "We match up well and he just got some good shots on me." A disappointment of another sort occurred in Saturday's 165-lb. bout, as an injury to Harvard's Joey Killar, No. 2 in the EIWA, prevented a matchup with Penn's Rick Springman, ranked No. 1 in the EIWA. "[Killar] is out for a while," Weiss said. "He popped out a rib -- twice, actually. Did it and took two weeks off and came back and did it worse. That hurts. Our backup 157-pounder [Tom Kiler] had to wrestle at 165. It's tough -- Penn is well-balanced and we don't have the depth." The depth came through for Penn this weekend, as nine of their 10 wrestlers won at least one match. "Penn has a very strong team and they showed it," Brown coach Dave Amato said.