A home and away ... all in one day

How's this for a wacky end to a regular season?

After a 1 p.m. home match against Lehigh on Sunday, the No. 25 Penn Wrestling team will turn around and prepare for a 6 p.m. tilt against Princeton - in New Jersey.

"It is what it is," coach Zeke Jones said. "While it's not unusual to have two meets in a day, it is to have one home and one away. The pressure will be similar to the NCAAs."

Despite the strangeness of the home-and-away, it's not something the Quakers haven't done before. Last year, Nebraska visited the Palestra, and then the Quakers drove up to Princeton.

"It's a little weird, but we did do it last year," said senior captain Rob Hitschler, who wrestles at 157 pounds. "And no offense to Princeton, but they're usually not the toughest match."

The Tigers are winless on the season, having gone 0-15 overall, and 0-4 in the Ivy League.

But before the Quakers (11-5, 3-1 Ivy) travel to New Jersey, they'll have to take on a tough Mountain Hawks team.

"Lehigh is pretty good at 174 pounds and 133 pounds," Jones said. "They also have a good 149 guy, so the meet against [Penn's 149-pounder Cesar] Grajales should be good. We're going to have to wrestle them tough in a few bouts."

Ironically, it is Lehigh, not Princeton, with whom the Quakers have a wrestling rivalry.

"Penn and Lehigh have a tremendous history of wrestling," Jones said. "Penn-Lehigh and Penn-Cornell are always two of the bigger dual meets in the EIWA each year."

Before the Lehigh meet there will be senior day activities, as the team will honor its three members of the class of 2008: Vincent Cina, Lior Zamir and Hitschler.

"It's been a great experience," Hitschler said of his days at Penn. "It's been a good year to close it out on."

One reason Hitschler is happy is that his team has had a six-game winning streak this year. However, that ended this past Saturday as No. 15 Cornell beat Penn by four.

"We need to keep doing what we're doing," Jones said. "We'll look back on what errors we made and we'll try to fix them. I think as a team we're doing just fine; it's individual areas that we've got to work on."

This Sunday is the last chance the Quakers will get to work on those areas. After the Princeton meet, their next match will be the EIWA Championships March 8-9 at Franklin & Marshall.

"It would be great to end [the regular season] on a good note," Jones said.

"We've got to ensure that we're on the right track technically and that we stay healthy. The season's not over yet; we've got to focus on the present."

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