Reina finds a `diamond in the rough'

People are going to have problems cheering for the Penn wrestling team soon.

Not because they're a bad team, though. In fact, the Quakers may have their best year ever, as they return two All-Americans and a class of sophomores ranked No. 4 in the nation by Amateur Wrestling News last year.

People are going to have problems because for the second straight year, Penn coach Roger Reina has brought in a set of twins.

Last year, Reina announced the arrival of Joe and Josh Henson, twins who spent their first two college years at the University of Nebraska and then transferred to Penn.

This season, Chris and Craig Wright of the Garden State have been added to the Penn wrestling roster.

"I like recruiting twins because twins compete, in a sense, from birth," Reina said. "We've had great success recruiting twins in the past, and I think the Wright brothers are really going to add a lot to the middle weights in our program."

Leading Penn's Class of 2005, however, are two big men who will add depth to the Quakers' lineup at the upper end.

"We knew that in this year's recruiting class we were going to need to recruit in some upper weights," Reina said.

And that's exactly what Reina did, bringing in Matt Feast and Paul Velekei.

"I think those two are going to be a force in the upper weights within the [Ivy] League and in the East," Reina said. "They've risen to the top of the ladder nationally at the high school age group and I think they fully expect to do it at the collegiate level too."

Feast, who is the nation's top-ranked recruit at 215 pounds, went undefeated in his senior season at Blue Mountain H.S. After taking the Pennsylvania State Championship in the 285-pound weight class, Feast went on to win the National High School title in the light-heavyweight slot.

"Coming into this year, I don't think anybody had him in the top 20 of recruits in his weight class," Reina said of Feast, who finished fourth at states during his junior year. "We feel we made a good decision picking him. He applied early decision, and was admitted early to Wharton.

"We felt like we had a diamond in the rough, and it looks like it turned out that way."

Feast, who is also a Junior National Greco-Roman All-American, will likely compete at either heavyweight or 197, a spot previously occupied by 2001 graduate and All-American Mike Fickell.

Another wrestler who may compete at Fickell's spot is Velekei, a wrestler of a similar caliber to Feast. Velekei is both a National Prep Champion and a Junior National Greco-Roman Champion.

"Velekei has a lot of skills both in collegiate style wrestling as well as in Greco-Roman and freestyle wrestling, as does Feast," Reina said. "They're both year-round wrestlers. They both compete in all three styles."

Velekei hails from Blair Academy, the No. 1 school in the country for wrestling.

Also from Blair Academy is Richard Ferguson, who took second at the National Prep tournament at 160 pounds. Ferguson will likely compete at 165, where a vacant spot now exists after the departure of EIWA Champion Tim Ortman.

At the lower weights, the top recruits for Penn are Michael Crooks and Shawn Protz. Crooks is the Nevada 4-A State Champion at 103 pounds, and will compete at 125 for Penn. Protz has accumulated three top six finishes over the past three seasons and will compete at either 125 or 133 for the Quakers.

Speaking of the class as a whole, Reina recognizes that it won't be ranked in the top five nationally. But nonetheless, he feels that this class will fill the appropriate gaps on Penn's roster.

"I don't think overall this year's recruiting class is going to have the same national ranking as last year's No. 4," Reina said. "But I think it does address the areas we targeted. We also have a lot of guys that may not be immediate impact, but have the kind of character and work ethic that when their time comes to start in a year or two, they're going to be ready."

And despite returning eight starters and adding All-American Rick Springman, who took last season off, there still will be opportunities for a couple of freshmen to potentially crack the starting lineup.

"Particularly in the upper weights and the lighter weights there are going to be some opportunities for freshmen to start," Reina said. "Typically we've had one or two freshmen in the starting lineup. I've never had five like last year, and there's been times when we've had no freshmen in the starting lineup, but usually it's one or two.

"I think next year we'll be back to norm."

And then there are those that definitely will not start next year. But Reina knows these wrestlers decided to matriculate at Penn for that very reason.

"You can't have both -- an easy road to a starting lineup and the kind of quality competition in the practice room to maximize your potential," Reina said. "People that choose to come to Penn know that up front. They're willing to take the chance of not breaking through up front and trade for the opportunity to most fully realize their potential by the time they're seniors.

"They know they've got their work cut out for them, but they also know that once they reach the starting lineup, they're going to be NCAA qualifier level or above, in terms of their own competitive abilities."

So with so many returning starters and a star-studded recruiting class once again, things are only looking up for Reina and the Penn wrestling program.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.