COLUMN: Wrestling no longer a Cinderella

If the 1999-2000 Red and Blue grapplers were just your average Ivy League team, their winter break would read like a page out of the script of Rudy. With a fourth-place finish at the ultra-prestigious Midlands Tournament held at Northwestern, and with two 'matter-of-inches' dual meet losses to Big Ten mainstays No. 24 Purdue and No. 9 Michigan, the average Ancient Eight squad would feel just like Rudy Ruttinger did when the crowd chants his name at the end of that hokeyist of sports tear-jerkers. They'd feel just like that scrawny defender who made it in the world of football giants and Touchdown Jesus. But these Penn wrestlers are not your average group of Ivy League athletes. They are no longer the underdogs -- they belong with the big boys, and they know it. Those two contests against Michigan and Purdue were just losses like any other. As a result, the currently No. 8 Quakers (1-2) are not content with just staying close to the best this country has to offer. Losses like those incurred at West Lafayette and at Ann Arbor leave a bad taste in their mouths. "There's no consolation for anyone on this team," Penn coach Roger Reina said. "We went out there to win both of those dual meets and didn't, and that fact stings." When Reina took the reins of this program 14 years ago, an 18-17 loss to the Michigan Wolverines wouldn't have stung. It would have made the Quakers mad with glee, as Reina managed just a 6-14 record in 1986-87, his first year as head man. Since then, however, he has built a team that has strived for excellence at every turn. Penn finished 11th overall at last year's NCAA Championships and ended its campaign ranked No. 12 in the nation. That marks the highest the Quakers have ever finished. Amazingly enough, Penn has moved up in the national rankings every year under Reina and have always finished higher than they were touted in the preseason. Add to this a fourth-straight EIWA title and the fifth Ivy League crown in the last six years, and one can begin to see just how far this program has come. "From a bigger perspective, the fact that we're genuinely and deeply disappointed with these two losses is, in a sense, a reflection of how much this program has progressed," Reina said. Reina's wrestlers might know this even better than he does. "I've been around this program for close to eight years now" said senior tri-captain Brett Matter, whose brother Clint graduated from Wharton in 1997. "I remember that my brother called me up once to tell me that they got shut out by North Carolina, and now we're so upset after we lose to two Big Ten teams. It's indicative of how our program is. I had the opportunity to go to some of those Big Ten schools, but I wanted to come here and build tradition." The next step on the Quakers tradition-building tour is this weekend's NWCA National Dual Meet Championships, which will be held at Penn State this coming Saturday and Sunday. Penn has made a habit of starting their own traditions at National Duals. Four years ago, Penn became the first Ivy League or EIWA team to earn a spot in the esteemed competition. The year 2000 marks the third time in the past four years that Penn has made an appearance. In 1998, the Quakers were solid, but not awe-inspiring, beating San Francisco State 28-10, while losing to Iowa 30-3 and to West Virginia 20-19. Their performance that year was not enough to secure an automatic bid back to the event last season. Penn hopes to earn its place among the elite this weekend in Happy Valley. Coming off of the Midlands, Penn's three captains -- Matter (157), Springman (174) and Bandele Adeniyi-Bada (Heavyweight) -- appear poised to contend for this years NCAA championship. Matter, who is currently ranked No. 2 in the country, second only to Iowa's T.J. Williams, got a chance to face off against the Hawkeye sophomore and defending national champ at the Midlands. Their bout was a barnburner, ending up at 5-3 in favor of Williams. Matter showed to the wrestling world that he is "the person in the country with the strongest chance of beating Williams." "Midlands reinforced to me the fact that I can win a national title. I think I believe it now more than ever," Matter said. The clock is ticking on Matter's career, and the Penn senior knows full well that he has just two months to prepare for the NCAAs on March 16-18. This will be the Delran, N.J., native's last opportunity to join the fraternity of past national champions, one that his father, two-time NCAA-winner Andrew Matter illustriously belongs. Unlike Matter, Springman is just a junior, and after this season he still has one more shot at the crown. Still, after his gutsy demonstration at the Midlands, it looks as if now might be the time for Springman as well. Springman had all guns drawn at the Midlands, and he scored victories over no less than three of last year's All-Americans. "I felt he was a challenger for the title last year," Reina said. "He's matured technically and as a person over the course of the year, and I think he's where he needs to be." In his last Midlands in a Penn uniform, Adeniyi-Bada came up just short to Iowa's Wes Hand in the final round. He led the match convincingly in the waning moments but decided not to sit back on his heels. His aggressiveness played a role in Hand turning him over for a dramatic and title-clinching pin. He lost the match, yet in the process, he showed that he has the fortitude to stay motivated and active in a pressure-packed situation before a hostile crowd. "I always wrestle better when I feel that I've got something to prove," Adeniyi-Bada said. With three strong national championship contenders at the helm, and with a strong supporting crew behind them, the Penn wrestling team may not have to worry about moral victories for a very long time.

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