The Penn wrestling team kicked off its season on Saturday at the Oklahoma Brockport Gold, taking home second place in the tournament.
Senior Matt Valenti, who returns to the team this year after sitting out last season with a shoulder injury, turned in a dominating performance, claiming the title at 133 lbs. Ironically enough, his closest match came against teammate Matt Eveleth. Valenti is looking to return to All-American status, a feat he accomplished before the injury.
"It definitely felt good to get back," Valenti said. "My shoulder felt 100 percent, and I'm back to wrestling my old style, picking up right where I left off two years ago. There wasn't a real lot of competition in the tournament, so I'm not really proving it against the top guys yet, but it'll come with time."
Valenti may not have come up against very stiff competition, but other weightclasses presented their fair share of challenges. At 141, freshman Cesar Grajales made it all the way to the final round before falling to defending national champion Teyon Ware of Oklahoma. Sophomore Lior Zamir and senior Paul Velekei each finished third at 174 and 197, respectively. While Valenti was the only one who managed to come out on top of his bracket, the Red and Blue placed in the top five in each weightclass except heavyweight.
"We're pleased with how we competed and I felt good about where our conditioning was at at this point in the season," coach Zeke Jones said.
The tournament was the first competition for the new coach at Penn. "I think it was a big factor in how we competed ... It was a balanced effort where all of our guys scored points for the team," he said.
As a team, the Quakers finished with 166 points, just behind No. 2 Oklahoma (USA Today/NWCA/Intermat rankings), which took home first with 171 points. The Sooners won the 11-team event for the seventh-straight time, while Penn one-upped its own third-place result from a year ago. With such a small margin of victory between itself and the second-ranked team in the country, the Red and Blue likes how it competed. Still, the team victory was within grasp.
"That final round of placing rounds was a challenge," Jones said. "We had Oklahoma head-to-head three times and that proved to be part of the difference. We lost three semifinal bouts in the last 10 seconds. If we win any one of those three, we win the tournament against the No. 2 team in the country."
"Overall, it's positive knowing that we're right there with the best teams in the country," Valenti added.
Jones was pleased with the team's performance, but knows the win slipped away at a time when it was very attainable.
"We needed to manage the little things, like our lead management," Jones said. "In those three bouts that we lost, we were in the lead on all three with 15, 20 seconds to go. Managing a lead is a strategy; there are skills and tactics to it."
That fact means one thing for the Quakers: intense training in the weeks to come. They had a glimpse of success this weekend, but find themselves nowhere near where they want to be. It's early on in the season, though, too early to be drawing conclusions.
"For a young team -- which is what we are, with a lot of young kids on it -- we only have room for improvement throughout the season, and we're just going to get better," Valenti said. "To see how well we're doing, this early in the season, is definitely a real promising thing."
