Wrestling will be team to beat at Classic

The 10th-ranked Quakers get their first real action of the season at the Ivy League Kickoff Classic tournament. For each of the past two years, the Penn wrestling team has entered the Ivy League Kickoff Classic as a consensus favorite to win. And both times, the Quakers have come away from the season-opening meet with only a hard-fought second-place finish to show for their efforts. Last year, the Red and Blue lost to rival Harvard by the narrow margin of 159.5 to 145. In 1997, it was the Cornell club that defeated Penn by 18.5 points. The Quakers hope to reverse this trend as they make the trek up I-95 to Columbia's Levien Gymnasium on Sunday for the first meet of the 1999 season. "We're excited to open up competition," Penn coach Roger Reina said. "This will be a gauge especially for our younger wrestlers to measure their progress." Penn will wear the familiar bullseye on its chest as the Quakers are ranked 10th in the National Wrestling Coaches Association Preseason Top 20 poll. In addition to receiving the team's highest-ever preseason ranking, three Quakers were ranked in the top eight in their respective weight classes by Amateur Wrestling News. Senior Brett Matter is ranked fourth in the 157-pound class; he earned All-America honors at 149 pounds in 1999. Yoshi Nakamura -- the 1999 Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association champion at 157 pounds -- is ranked No. 7 at 165 pounds. Heavyweight Bandele Adeniyi-Bada, an All-American in '99, is ranked third. This weekend, Penn will be competing against the other five Ivy schools that field programs. Yale and Dartmouth do not have varsity wrestling teams. The Red and Blue, who should see their toughest team competition come from Cornell and Harvard, could see as many as four wrestlers claim individual titles. Included in that group are tri-captains Matter, Adeniyi-Bada and junior Rick Springman. Several Penn wrestlers will be looking to repeat as champions in their weight classes. Matter, Adeniyi-Bada, Springman and junior Justin Bravo all walked away from Cornell with individual titles last November. Springman (174 pounds) will likely have to face Cornell's Joe Tucceri, who he edged by three points in last year's final. Bravo, the defending meet champion at 125 pounds, will not be competing in this weekend's meet for unspecified reasons. In the heavyweight division, two-time meet champion Adeniyi-Bada will likely have to face off against Brown's Bronson Lingamfelter, who starts the season ranked 14th in the country. In their last meeting, Adeniyi-Bada convincingly beat Lingamfelter, 14-6, in the NCAA Tournament. His other main competition will be Seth Charles of Cornell, the preseason No. 8 at heavyweight. "We're not going to have our full lineup in place," Reina said. "Also, a lot of our wrestlers are not at their ultimate weight yet." All in all, Penn will send 24 wrestlers to Columbia to compete in the 10 different weight classes, ranging from 125 to Heavyweight. The tournament will be individually bracketed for each weight class with the top wrestlers. Schools accumulate team points based on individual performances. While this tournament is far from being the most crucial of the year, a win on Sunday would help prove that the Quakers' top 10 national ranking is well deserved.