Freshman Matt Dragon will be making his first trip to the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association championships this weekend. But despite a lack of experience with collegiate athletics, he is expected to be ranked first in the 149-pound weightclass.
No. 15 Dragon is one of two Penn grapplers who will probably grab top seeds. No. 7 junior Matt Valenti should be named the one seed at 133 pounds.
The No. 22 Quakers (11-5, 4-2 EIWA) have an uphill battle to fight as they search for their first EIWA championship since 1999. They will have to defeat 12 other schools, including No. 14 Cornell, No. 15 Lehigh and No. 20 Navy.
Penn will be further challenged by favorite Lehigh, which will be competing in its home court.
The 102nd EIWA tournament will feature 23 ranked wrestlers and 44 EIWA wrestlers who are headed to the NCAA Championships.
While Penn isn't as top heavy as Lehigh or Cornell, the Quakers are likely to have nine grapplers make the seeding.
"They have a lot of big bullets, we have more smaller mid-sized shots at scoring points," coach Zeke Jones said. "It's going to take a collective effort to have the kind of success we are hoping to have at this tournament."
Penn is seen by many as a third- or fourth-place team going in, in part because it lost to both Cornell (20-12) and Lehigh (21-16) earlier this season.
All of Penn's losses this year were to ranked opponents.
"No one likes to lose, but losing to those teams ... makes you hungrier," Dragon said. "It makes you want to work harder, to want to win."
Jones has confidence in his wrestlers and believes they have the talent to win it all.
"It's up to our guys to decide whether we're a third- or fourth-place team or a first or second place team," he said.
Many of the wrestlers will be seeing many familiar faces this weekend.
Valenti is likely to go against either Robbie Preston of Harvard or Mike Mormile of Cornell, opponents he has beaten once and twice, respectively, this season.
The 157-pound senior Gene Zanetti will have to go through No. 8 Dustin Manotti of Cornell for a title. Zanetti has lost Manotti twice this season.
At 174, No. 17 Matt Herrington, a junior, will try to repeat his upset against Columbia's Matt Palmer and avenge his loss to Lehigh's Travis Frick.
With the previous experience each bout is more likely to be "a little more of a chess match," Jones said. The wrestlers will have to balance previous experience and scouting with new technique.
The Quakers will go to the EIWA championship at full strength.
"It's the most health I've seen a team that I've been a part of in 15 years," Jones said.
