OKLAHOMA CITY -- Forget Marlboro Cigarettes, there are some new cowboy killers in town.
The Penn wrestling team had an immensely successful day yesterday at the NCAA Championships -- perhaps the most successful in program history -- and a good deal of it came against the Cowboys of Oklahoma State.
The tournament has mostly belonged to the hometown team, who figures to win its third national title in a row, but yesterday saw two Quakers wrestlers get the better of their orange-clad opponents.
In front of a packed house of 16,126, almost half of which came to the Ford Center to root on the Cowboys, sixth-seeded Matt Valenti defeated OSU's No. 2-seed Nathan Morgan in the 133-pound semifinals to advance to championship bout today.
Then, needing to win just one more match in the 174-pound consolation bracket to become an All-American for the first time, 12th-seeded Matt Herrington came through against the Cowboys' No. 11 seed Brandon Mason.
It was "a great day two for Penn wrestling," Penn coach Zeke Jones said of the Quakers, who are sitting squarely in 12th place. "I was really proud of the way our guys competed. They just really battled."
On a day when they crowned two All-Americans, the four Quakers still competing went 9-2 total. Juniors Valenti and Herrington went undefeated, while senior Mike Silengo went 1-1 and freshman Matt Dragon went 2-1. Because of their two losses, Silengo and Dragon were eliminated, but not before they could do some damage in the wrestle-back brackets and earn some team points. But in the end, the day belonged to Valenti.
In his first match yesterday morning, Penn's co-captain was paired with No. 3 Thomas Clum of Wisconsin. Despite being seeded lower, Valenti was never challenged in the bout. He used takedowns in the first two periods and a reversal in the third to take a convincing 7-3 win with riding time. The decision assured Valenti of All-American status.
"It's not really an upset," he said afterwards. "I've beaten the kid before. Obviously, it felt real good to beat him again, and beat him a lot more solidly than I did last time."
But the Newton, N.J. native wasn't done there. He still had to pull his second "upset" of the day against Morgan in the evening session to earn his spot in the finals.
Much to the satisfaction of the pro-Morgan crowd, the No. 2 seed scored the first takedown on Valenti in the opening period. But the Penn grappler escaped just seven seconds later and the first period saw no more scoring.
Morgan elected to start the second period on bottom, and he paid for it. Valenti rode him for the entire two minutes, securing riding time and visibly tiring his opponent out.
"We had him scouted and really understood his top move," Valenti said. "I knew that he was a little weak on bottom and I knew if I really pushed on top I could ride him."
With Valenti starting the third period on bottom, Morgan just didn't have enough left in the tank to stay in control. The sixth seed wasted little time in escaping for one, and wasted even less getting a takedown to score two more. With a little help from the home crowd, Morgan managed to escape to make the score 4-3, but still needed to score more points to complete the comeback. In a desperate attempt to do just that, he ended up leaving himself vulnerable to attack, and Valenti pounced immediately to score his third and final takedown of the match.
In the end, Penn's top-ranked wrestler emerged with a 7-3 victory to advance to the final bout. He will be the first Quakers wrestler to compete in the championship match in six years. There, he will lock horns with Christopher Fleeger, the fifth-ranked wrestler from Purdue who advanced by taking out top-seeded Shawn Bunch of Edinboro.
"He's extremely athletic, he's an extremely confident wrestler," Jones said of Valenti's finals opponent. "Matt's going to really have to do his homework to be ready for that bout." "It's a good feeling [to be in the finals]," Valenti said. "In front of this crowd, it gets really loud in there and they can get pretty rambunctious. I am looking forward to the match."
Joining Valenti as an All-American is Herrington (174 pounds), who is doing it the hard way -- through the consolation bracket. The junior won all four of his matches yesterday to assure himself of a spot in the top six. But no bout was bigger than the one he won against Oklahoma State's Mason to earn the much-coveted distinction.
"Obviously, the chance to be an All-American doesn't come along very often," Herrington said.
All year, Jones has stressed that the goal for each individual wrestler is to be a high All-American or a national champion, making a distinction between finishing in the top eight and finishing in the top six.
"We don't talk about being All-Americans, we talk about high All-Americans."
In order to meet that standard, Herrington still needed to win one more match. He did that, and did it quickly.
Against No. 9 seed James Yonushonis of Penn State, the Cambridge, N.Y., native needed just 49 seconds to get the pin and break into the top six.
"The kid made a mistake, and Matt was all over it," Jones said. "Herrington being able to do that, that was critical. ... I told him earlier in the day that there's only one thing worse than losing once, and that's called losing twice. I don't think he wants that feeling again. He's a momentum kid, you can see it."
In order to continue the run, Herrington will have to beat the wrestler that originally knocked him out of the championship bracket, Hofstra's fifth-seeded Michael Patrovich. If he wins that bout, he will have the chance to compete for the third spot on the podium.
Each Penn wrestler still alive yesterday got at least one win, and that also goes for the two that were eliminated with their second losses.
Senior Mike Silengo beat Chad Sportelli of Kent State in the morning's first bout, but was unable to emerge from the session unscathed as he lost to OSU's sixth-seeded Coleman Scott in the next round. The trip to nationals, and the deep run he made here, were fitting ways to end an up-and-down career.
"He just has been a tremendous blessing in the program," Jones said of the lightweight. "He's had some rough patches between injury and being behind Valenti. He got his opportunity this year and to make it into the Sweet Sixteen is something he can be very proud of."
For Dragon, the mood is somewhat different. Although he did just miss out on being an All-American in his first year of collegiate wrestling, one gets the sense that there is still more to come with the young 149-pounder. Jones is one of those people.
"Obviously, his future is bright," Jones said. "He's going to be the future of Penn wrestling. ... We're really looking forward to Matt accomplishing some high goals and having that opportunity to compete to become a high All-American or national champion."
Although Dragon will have to wait at least another year for that latter accomplishment, Valenti could do it this evening. After seeing the men's basketball team fall just short against Texas last night, ESPN's airing of Valenti's title bid tonight at 7 p.m. could be just what the doctor ordered for Quakers fans of any sport.
