Heading into the final round of the Keystone Classic yesterday at the Palestra, the Penn wrestling team led No. 4 Hofstra by a point and a half.
However, the Quakers failed to pull out the victory at their first meet of the season, ultimately falling by a score of 137.5-134,despite having one more wrestler in the championship finals and one more wrestler in the consolation finals than the Pride.
Although the Quakers and the Pride both had six wins during the final round of matches, Hofstra was able to squeak past Penn by taking three of five head-to-head championship matches and finishing with four champions overall compared to the Quakers' three.
"We fell a little bit short of coming home with the team title, which would have really been nice that was our goal and we felt that was within range," Penn coach Roger Reina said. "Still, I think our guys showed a lot of heart and more than anything I think we learned a lot that we can really develop over the course of the next several weeks."
For the third year in a row junior co-captain Matt Feast, ranked as high as fifth in the nation as a heavyweight, captured his division. He topped Carmelo Marrero of Rider in a technically sloppy final by a 3-2 margin. Feast had several opportunities to put Marrero away, but he allowed Marrero to hang around all match.
"Yeah I pulled off the win, but I like to come off the mat tired and exhausted," Feast said. "Walking off the mat, I was so full of energy. I could have put a lot more in."
"I wrestled the Rider guy before and I beat him by a more significant margin, so I can't accept that. I have got to work harder."
Although Feast felt his performance was shaky, all of the Quakers were impressed by Matt Valenti, who beat Hofstra's Tom Noto to win the 125 lbs. division. For defeating Noto, who had been ranked as high as third in the nation in pre-season polls, Valenti earned the 'Champion of Champions' award honoring the top wrestler in the tournament as voted by the wrestlers themselves.
"He did a terrific job," Reina said. "That was a big win for Matt."
Senior co-captain Doug McGraw captured the 141 lbs. weightclass, beating Rider's Mike Molosky in a 7-5 decision. McGraw had a near pin in the second as he got two points for a take down, but Molosky came back with a take down of his own in the third to make it 6-5. McGraw then held his lead by locking up Molosky for the remainder of the match and earning an escape along the way.
Brett Vanderveer, Matt Herrington, Paul Velekei and Marcus Schontube finished second at 157 lbs., 174 lbs., 184 lbs. and 197 lbs. respectively.
"I though each of our captains... had really strong showings, so I thought our leaders really stepped up," Reina said. "I think there was a lot of real positive things we can take away and learn from."
