When College junior Matt Valenti steps onto the mat in the Palestra tomorrow afternoon, he will be the only Quaker competing against his opponent for the second time this season.
The 133-pound bout between No. 10 Valenti and No. 14 Mike Mormile of Cornell is one of the highlights of the weekend between the top two Ivy League wrestling teams. They last met in December, when Valenti beat Mormile at the Cliff Keen Invitational in Las Vegas.
Tomorrow, No. 22 Penn will challenge No. 13 Cornell in a match that will likely decide the league title. The Quakers (9-3, 2-0 Ivy) will follow up with Columbia (4-5, 0-1) on Saturday afternoon.
Penn and Cornell (5-4, 1-0) have combined to win every Ivy League title since the 1986-87 season, as Penn has six outright titles to Cornell's 11 in that span.
In addition to Valenti's rematch, Friday will feature two bouts pitting ranked opponents against each other. Senior No. 18 Mike Silengo will wrestle No. 5 Troy Nickerson at 125 pounds, and No. 20 Gene Zannetti will attempt to take down No. 5 Dustin Mannotti at 157. Cornell also features ranked wrestles in the 165-, 184- and 197-pound categories.
The opportunity to win an Ivy title certainly has the team excited. In addition, if it can beat Cornell, it will the first time the Quakers have defeated a ranked opponent since taking down West Virginia in January of 2004. In fact, all three Penn losses this year are to ranked opponents.
"We try not to think of numbers and rank," Valenti said. "We have a team with enough talent that if we wrestle our best, we can beat a team ranked higher than us, like Cornell."
Some wrestlers, including Valenti are using the excitement and potential of the matchup to get themselves prepared.
"We're just trying to keep the energy up and positive attitude overall," he said. "You know we're all very excited -- that kind of comes with the match and the rivalry."
Other wrestlers, like Silengo, don't want to get caught up in the rivalry furor.
"I think it kind of helps to think of it as any other match," he said.
While coach Zeke Jones certainly recognizes and appreciates the intensity of the Cornell match, he's focused on winning two this weekend and says he must be prepared for both.
"My approach has been, since they're already focused on it, why bring more attention to it?" Jones said. "We certainly have to realize we are wrestling two teams this weekend."
While Columbia is definitely not the wrestling powerhouse Cornell is, the Quakers can't wrestle lackadaisically against the Lions and expect to win.
This will be the 102nd meeting between Penn and Columbia, the third-most matches between any two schools in collegiate wrestling. Columbia features the No. 7 wrestler, Matt Palmer, in the 174-pound weight class and has some solid wrestlers in lighter weight classes as well.
The Quakers are looking forward to finishing out the regular season with four matches at the Palestra. Penn has only had three dual meets at home this season while nine have been on the road.
"I think in any sport home court advantage is always health," Jones said. "Sleep in your own bed, eat your own food, go through your own same patterns."
