Every team watches film of its opponents to prepare for future matches, but there is nothing like a live performance to size up the competition. This weekend the Quakers will get to watch three future opponents first hand -- and perhaps even wrestle against them.
The No. 25 Quakers are spending today and tomorrow in Hampton, Va., to participate in the 26th Annual Virginia Duals.
It will be the Quakers' first appearance at the Virginia Duals -- the world's largest college and high school tournament -- since 2001, and the fifth overall appearance.
"It's fun for the guys, that environment," coach Zeke Jones said.
The Virginia Duals features a 16-team field, including four Penn opponents from this season's schedule -- Drexel, whom the Quakers beat 21-15, North Carolina, The Citadel and Columbia. Penn will be one of two ranked teams at the tournament, along with No. 15 Indiana.
"We'lll get a lot of learning done over those couple [of] bouts," Jones said.
While Penn will be looking for a solid performance and perhaps a tournament win, Indiana will be looking for the title it just missed out on last year, when it finished second to Nebraska.
If the Quakers get the opportunity to take on Indiana for the title and win, it will be their first win over a ranked opponent since beating No. 14 West Virginia two years ago -- when Jones was a Mountaineers assistant coach. Penn lost to Indiana 21-7 at the Virginia Duals in 2001.
The Quakers will take on North Dakota State (0-1) in the first round. The Bison return only two starters to this year's squad. The rest of the starters include one sophomore, four redshirt freshmen, and two first-year wrestlers.
Despite fielding only two ranked teams, Jones refuses to underestimate the rest of the programs. He has no expectations of automatically winning any match nor advancing to any level of the tournament.
"A lot of the teams will be pretty equally matched up there," Jones said. "There is no giant separation from the first to the last team."
Furthermore, Jones will keep his focus on only the round being fought.
"We usually try not to see too far ahead, watch the first one [match] and see how it develops," he said. "Keep a focus on the present."
The Quakers are poised to do well, though. Seven grapplers already have double-digit victories this season -- Andrew Gold, Matt Valenti, Cesar Grajales, Matt Dragon, Gene Zannetti, Lior Zamir and Dustin Wiles.
Jones believes his team is physically poised for good results as well.
"I think we're relatively healthy," he said, "I think that we're only getting stronger."
