ST. LOUIS -- Sophomore Matt Valenti came into the NCAA Championships this weekend sporting a 30-4 record and the momentum from a dominant performance in the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association Championships, held on March 6 and 7. Valenti pinned two opponents and won his next two matches by six points each on his way to an EIWA title at the Palestra.
However, the early rounds of the grueling three-day national tournament were not kind to Valenti and the Quakers, as only junior Matt Feast made it through the first day without a loss.
Valenti, seeded No. 3 at 125 pounds, faced unseeded Mark McKnight of Buffalo in the first round. McKnight -- who came in with a 32-6 record and had the best winning percentage among opponents of the 12 seeded wrestlers -- posed multiple problems as a first-round matchup.
Both grapplers earned a point for an escape during regulation, forcing overtime at 1-1. Neither Valenti nor McKnight were able to earn a point through three rounds of overtime and both remained very tentative. In the fourth overtime, McKnight earned an early escape, but Valenti responded with an escape of his own with 10 seconds remaining. Before Valenti could escape, however, McKnight amassed 13 seconds of riding time -- enough to earn himself another point and the victory.
"I just wasn't myself, that's what it boils down to," Valenti said. "I didn't wrestle my best and if you don't wrestle your best here, you don't deserve to win."
The tournament, which is double elimination until the place rounds, allows wrestlers with one loss to finish as high as third. So even though an early round loss is not insurmountable, it results in tremendous pressure.
"It's a whole other tournament once you lose," Valenti said.
The six other Penn grapplers who qualified for the tournament faced problems in the early rounds as well.
Senior co-captain Brett Vanderveer and junior Paul Velekei, both wrestling with injuries, were unable to survive the first day of competition, each falling in consecutive matches. Senior Marcus Schontube failed to earn a victory as well.
Sophomore Matt Herrington, still wrestling with a painful shoulder injury sustained on Jan. 17, was able to get through the first round with a 7-2 victory against Imad Kharbush of Stanford. Herrington, seeded No. 11, then faced No. 6 seed Ben Askren of Missouri and managed a takedown in the first round. But Askren, the eventual runner-up at 174 pounds, started on the mat in the second, quickly escaped and then, following a takedown, pinned Herrington with 2:12 remaining.
The lone bright spot early in the competition was the dominance of junior Matt Feast. The No. 3 heavyweight earned a major decision against Jacob McGinnis of Boise State and defeated Old Dominion's Derrell Lorthridge, 3-0. However, Feast sprained the lateral collateral ligament in his knee during the opening round and had it heavily taped throughout the rest of the tournament.
"We stumbled out of the blocks on the first day, put our backs against the wall in a lot of different ways," Penn coach Roger Reina said. "But I think our guys battled back and really started to open up -- started wrestling more to their ability -- as the tournament went on."
During the second day of competition, senior Doug McGraw and Herrington each earned victories in their first matches of the consolation bracket, but fell in the afternoon to Brad Metzler of Stanford and Andrew Roy of Rutgers, respectively.
Following his early loss on Thursday, Valenti dominated his next three matches, securing a fall in one and winning the other two by a total of six points.
In the place round, Valenti went up against No. 2 seed Luke Eustice of Iowa. Not only did the match put All-American honors for the two grapplers on the line, but Iowa was only behind point leader Oklahoma State by five in the team race.
Eustice and Valenti each had an escape during regulation to send the match to sudden victory, 1-1. Neither wrestler scored in the first overtime, but Valenti was awarded a penalty point and a point for a reversal following an illegal hand lock by Eustice in the second overtime. Eustice had a late escape, but the point did nothing as Valenti earned the victory. Valenti became only the third Penn grappler to claim All-American honors as a sophomore.
Feast faced sixth-seeded Greg Wagner of Michigan, whom he pinned earlier in the year, in the quarterfinals on Friday morning. The pair traded escapes, with Feast earning his in the second round and Wagner in the third, sending the match to overtime. Feast then took down Wagner during the first overtime to earn a sudden victory, 3-1.
The win earned Feast All-American honors and set up a semifinal featuring the fifth meeting between Feast and Penn State's Pat Cummins. Feast went 1-3 against Cummins this season, but defeated him in their last meeting, 6-5.
Feast, with his knee heavily taped, and Cummins each had two shots in the first round, but neither wrestler went to the mat. In the second, Cummins started down and earned a point with a quick escape. Feast took a shot at Cummins' leg with 40 seconds left in the second, but drove Cummins out of bounds in the process. Toward the end of the round, Cummins took a big shot at Feast and got his leg, but time ran out before Cummins could gain control of the takedown.
Feast managed an escape to begin the third and tied the score, 1-1. He was then able to get Cummins' leg in the air, but Cummins countered and took Feast down for two points. Feast earned an escape as time expired, but the point was not enough to change the outcome.
"Unfortunately he counterattacked me and changed the whole match around, changed the whole tournament for me," Feast said.
"He had a lot of pressure on my head and I couldn't get my head out and I stopped moving my feet. When I stopped moving my feet he grabbed my far knee and just put a lot of weight on it and I just toppled over. I tried to get up, tried to get up, tried to get up. I almost had a reversal at the buzzer, it didn't happen unfortunately."
Valenti and Feast each suffered losses in the semifinals for third place and then won their final matches to secure fifth place.
"I feel pretty good coming out, it's great to be an All-American, Valenti said. "I feel like I underachieved a little bit, but then again I'm only a sophomore and I still have two more years."
Feast and Valenti helped the Quakers finish 14th overall with 34 points. Oklahoma State dominated the field with 123.5 points. Iowa was second with 82 and perennial conference foe Lehigh, along with Ohio State, surprised many by tying for third with 77.5 points.
Harvard's Jesse Jantzen was the only Ivy Leaguer to win a national title. Wrestling at 149 pounds, his efforts were rewarded with the "Most Outstanding Wrestler" award. Stanford had its first national champion in Matt Gentry Jr. at 157 pounds and Lehigh's Troy Letters was crowned champion at 165 pounds.
