Tough break for Wrestling

The Penn wrestling team travelled to Hampton, Va., last weekend in hopes of notching a few victories -- and maybe even a trophy -- before heading into its Ivy League schedule. Instead, the Quakers came back to Philadelphia with a lone victory, a pair of losses and unfulfilled expectations. The Virginia Duals -- a tournament of dual meets -- started off well for the Quakers. Penn was able to trounce Buffalo by the score of 26-9 in the tournament's first round on Friday. But later in the day, Penn ran into a surprising roadblock in the Duals quarterfinals -- an Indiana team projected as an underdog to the Quakers. The Hoosiers were able to upset the favored Quakers, edging them by a score of 21-17 and sending them into a consolation-round matchup with Cal-State Bakersfield on Saturday. The Roadrunners, much like the cartoon character of the same name always does, prevailed against the reeling Red and Blue squad. The No. 23 Quakers fell by a score of 19-12. After Penn bowed out, Indiana ended up losing to eventual champion Lock Haven, the tournament's top seed, and the Roadrunners were able to fight their way to a chance at third place by defeating Rider and Missouri after dispatching Penn. In a meeting of Quakers-killers, Cal-State Bakersfield faced the Hoosiers, who prevailed by 15 points to capture third place. While the weekend was no doubt disappointing for Penn, the team doesn't seem to be dwelling on what could have been as compared to the underwhelming reality of the weekend. With a two-week respite coming before facing Columbia on January 26 in the team's first Ancient Eight contest, the Quakers seem intent to move on. "We fell a little short of expectations," Penn grappler Yoshi Nakamura said. "Every team goes in there wanting to win it, and that was definitely our goal. "We had a few losses, we took some bumps and bruises on the road, but we have to learn from that and take a step forward," he added. There's no denying, however, that the Quakers feel that what was supposed to happen didn't. "No doubt in my mind we felt like we could beat them," Nakamura said of the Hoosiers. "Our expectations were to beat Indiana." The Hoosiers were able to capture the day on the strength of victories in the four matches in the 125, 133, 141, and 149 lbs. weight classes, with Indiana's Gabe Cook notching an 11-9 decision over Penn wrestler Joe Henson -- the tournament's 16th seed -- in the latter and closest contest of the four. This disappointing weekend comes on the heels of an equally disappointing match against Michigan in Penn's first dual meet of the season at the Palestra on January 7. The No. 8 Wolverines trounced the Quakers by a 26-6 tally. Michigan was able to capture six decisions and two major decisions out of 10 matches. Nakamura and Penn senior Mike Fickell were the only victors for the Quakers. "It was very disappointing," Nakamura said. "Going into that dual meet, again, we had high expectations, but things didn't quite turn out the way we wanted them to."

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