ST. LOUIS -- After one day of competition at the NCAA Championships in St. Louis, the Penn wrestling team still has three of its original four qualifiers in the hunt for All-American status.
After the first day, the No. 24 Quakers were situated in a tie for 29th out of the 77-team field.
The only Penn wrestler to be eliminated yesterday was Mason Lenhard at 125 pounds. The senior drew a first-round matchup with No. 7 Andrew Hochstrasser of Boise State. In the pair's second match of the season, Hochstrasser emerged victorious by pinning Lenhard at 4:54.
Then, in the wrestle-back bracket, the Parma, Ohio, native fell behind 5-0 in the first period to Joe Kemmerer of UNC Greensboro. The deficit proved too much to surmount as Lenhard dropped the decision despite outscoring his opponent 4-2 in the subsequent two rounds.
The second Penn wrestler to compete had a resounding impact in his first match of the day. At 141, the un-seeded Doug McGraw took out No. 12 Cassio Pero of Illinois.
"You never know what to expect in the NCAA championships," Penn coach Roger Reina said. "Anything can happen. You see top-seeded guys get knocked off, like McGraw beating a seeded wrestler in the first round."
All the momentum in the world couldn't help McGraw in his next matchup, as he went toe-to-toe with Michigan State's No. 5 Andy Simmons. In the match, McGraw never looked dangerous as Simmons controlled the tempo and won a 5-1 decision.
Despite the loss, McGraw is still alive in competition and will be wrestling in the consolation bracket for the remainder of the tournament. His goal of becoming an All-American is still within reach.
In front of his hometown supporters, junior Dustin Wiles had probably the most difficult first round draw out of any Penn grappler. In the 174 bracket, Wiles was matched up against No. 3 Pete Friedl of Illinois.
After an uneventful first round, Friedl got the scoring started by escaping from Wiles in the second. The Illinois senior would manage to take Wiles down twice before all was said and done, while the Farmington, Mo. native was only able to escape twice to put points on the board.
Friedl cruised to a 6-2 victory with riding time in a match where Wiles was simply unable to create any offense. In his next match, the Illinois grappler pinned his opponent, Gabriel Dretsch of Minnesota.
As for Wiles, his first-round loss didn't seem to bother him as he went to work in the consolation bracket. In his subsequent bout with Joe Lowe of UNC Greensboro, the junior sustained a first-round takedown but then stepped up the tempo and never looked back.
After working himself to a 16-5 lead midway through the third round, he finally pinned his opponent to advance in the consolation bracket.
"Getting a fall always boosts the morale," Wiles said. "It's always nice."
Today, he will face Travis Frick of Lehigh, to whom he dropped a decision at the EIWAs just two weeks ago. Wrestling a familiar opponent, though, doesn't have him worried.
"I feel good about it," Wiles said. "First time we wrestled, he beat me by three or four, but I think I'll be alright."
Penn's lone wrestler still alive in the championship bracket -- not the consolation bracket -- is heavyweight Matt Feast. The Cressona, Pa., native ended the first session on a good note by easily handling Edinboro's Joe Hennis. In the second match between the two, the nation's No. 6 heavyweight wrestler cruised to a 9-1 victory.
In his second bout, the score was not so decisive, but it did the trick of putting Feast through to the next round. The senior beat Oklahoma's Jake Hager by the slim margin of 3-1.
"Feast, I think, did a solid job," Reina said. "I think he shut down on his offense a little bit too soon in that last match with [Hager] but I thought he controlled things."
Today, Feast is slated to wrestle against Arizona State's Cain Velasquez, ranked third in the heavyweight bracket. The two have never wrestled before, but the Quakers had the chance to watch him wrestle yesterday and scout him out.
"We scouted him out pretty well and, I think we've got a good gameplan for him," Reina said. "They're two very athletic heavyweights. Velasquez is really big, but he's in pretty good shape, very athletic, but so is Matt, so I think it's going to be an excellent match."
