Wrestling could clinch Ivy crown

Wins at Brown and Harvard could secure the sixth Ivy championship for the Quakers in the last seven seasons. Brown and Harvard have more than just home mat advantage against the Penn wrestling team this weekend -- they have a six-point handicap. For the second consecutive weekend, the Quakers will be spotting the opposition an initial advantage by forfeiting the 125-pound bout, but Penn (4-4, 2-0 Ivy League) is still expected to cruise past the host Bears (4-7, 0-0) this afternoon and the Crimson (3-3, 0-0) tomorrow afternoon. Sophomore Kevin Rucci's hand injury kept him out of the Quakers' three bouts last weekend, and the Penn 125-pounder will be absent from the lineup again this weekend. Penn, however, went 3-0 last weekend despite not having Rucci in the lineup. "It's not like football where one guy being out will just throw the whole team off course," Penn heavyweight Bandele Adeniyi-Bada said. "There are nine guys who can carry a six-point spread on our team." The wrestler who may have to carry the biggest load, oddly enough, is the smallest. Jason Nagle, the Quakers' diminutive 133-pounder and No. 1 in the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association rankings, will face both No. 2 Matt Picarsic and No. 3 Livio DiRubbo. Nagle knocked off Brown's DiRubbo in an EIWA finals upset last March, avenging DiRubbo's narrow victory in February. Harvard's Picarsic, meanwhile, was also left in the wake last year by Nagle's improbable run through the EIWAs. Two wins by Nagle would all but secure a top seed in the EIWAs next month -- a far cry from last year, when the Penn senior entered the tournament unseeded. Adeniyi-Bada, Penn's biggest wrestler, is also staring down an EIWA rematch this weekend. Today, the Quakers senior -- ranked fifth in the nation -- will face No. 8 Bronson Lingamfelter. The Brown heavyweight pinned Adeniyi-Bada in the closing seconds of the EIWA semifinals after trailing 11-3, but Adeniyi-Bada has twice avenged the defeat since that shocker. "It was just a lapse, basically," Adeniyi-Bada said of the match last March. The single biggest match of this weekend will feature Quakers junior Rick Springman in a high-profile rematch of a Midlands bout with Harvard's Ed Mosley. Springman, ranked No. 2 in the nation, pinned No. 4 Mosley in the December match after trailing well into the third period. "Rick's been wrestling extremely well in the practice room and I think he's taken big steps since his competition at the Midlands," Penn coach Roger Reina said. The Quakers have not backed off training in preparation for this weekend, as Reina continues to prepare his wrestlers to peak at Nationals. This week's practice has specifically focused on technical aspects of wrestling. "I've been working on different setups for my shots, looking to be a little slick," Adeniyi-Bada said. "You think these guys are expecting one thing and you hit them with a little slickness." Penn gained the upper hand in the Ivy League race last weekend with a 19-16 victory over No. 16 Cornell after sharing the league title with the Big Red last season. If the Quakers win against both Brown and Harvard this weekend, they will have earned at least a share of the Ivy League title for the fifth consecutive season. Going into last weekend's meets against No. 15 Cornell and Columbia, Penn had lost four of their last five dual meets -- although all five matches were against teams currently ranked as one of the top 25 programs in the nation. "We picked up our intensity against Cornell and wrestled more aggressively and more physically," Reina said. "We want to use that as a stepping stone and continue to increase that kind of intensity in competition." Penn will need to maintain its intensity level with the 125-pound spot possibly vacant until the EIWA Championships in early March. Reina said that Rucci could be ready by as early as February 20 against Lehigh.