The Penn football team's dominance of the Ivy League continued yesterday, even though the season ended Saturday.
The Quakers placed a league-high 18 players on the All-Ivy team, which was announced yesterday. The 18 selections included nine first team members, the most for a single team since Cornell garnered nine in 1986.
The Quakers were clearly the class of the league this season, going 7-0 and winning by an average of just over 30 points per game.
Senior linebacker Travis Belden, senior safety Vince Alexander, senior defensive end Chris Pennington and junior kicker Peter Veldman were each unanimous selections to the first team. Senior linebacker Steve Lhotak and cornerback Fred Plaza were honored with non-unanimous first team choices. Senior defensive lineman Ryan Strahlendorff was named second team all-Ivy.
Lhotak was named Ivy League defensive player of the week for notching eight tackles and two sacks in the Quakers' 31-0 Ivy-clinching win over Cornell.
Penn's defense was as dominant in games as they were on paper this season, holding league opponents to just over 10 points per game and under 50 rushing yards-per-contest, an Ivy record.
Veldman converted all 43 of his PATs and fell just five points short of an Ivy League scoring record for kickers.
The players most responsible for the high number of PATs attempted were also honored yesterday, as the senior tandem of quarterback Mike Mitchell and wide receiver Rob Milanese were named to the first team.
The offensive line, which has been solid for Penn all season -- especially in pass protection -- was recognized with juniors Chris Clark and Ben Noll garnering first and second team selections respectively.
Harvard wide receiver Carl Morris won the Asa S. Bushnell Cup as the Ivy League's Most Valuable Player award for the second consecutive season, becoming the first player since Cornell's Ed Marinaro in 1970 and 1971. The senior is also a finalist for the Walter Payton award given to the top Division I-AA player. He was held to just three catches for 16 yards, though, in the Crimson's 44-9 loss to the Quakers.
