Wrestling Season Preview | Eight tourney bids not enough for Penn

Most schools would consider sending eight wrestlers to the NCAA tournament a success.

Not Penn. The Quakers did that last year, but because none of the eight became All-Americans, they wrote off the 2007-08 campaign as something of a disappointment.

"We had a great [regular] season, but it didn't culminate in the success that we wanted," said first-year head coach Rob Eiter, who was a Penn assistant last year under current USA National coach Zeke Jones. But "it might have been the best thing for some of these guys, since now we'll learn from the experience."

The good news is that of those eight wrestlers, seven return this year. In fact, the Red and Blue lost only two men from last year's starting 10, earning them a No. 20 national preseason ranking.

"The goals are the same," senior captain Cesar Grajales said. "It's going to help that almost everyone is returning. I think we'll be able to [improve from 2008]."

With such talent returning, Eiter has a good idea of his lineup. While he admitted that seven of the 10 spots are set, he refused to specify which weightclasses have not been determined.

At the same time, it's not that hard to guess who will lead Penn this year.

The Quakers have five wrestlers in the latest Intermat rankings: No. 7 Rollie Peterkin (125 pounds), No. 12 Grajales (149), No. 18 Matt Dragon (157), No. 9 Zack Shanaman (165) and No. 17 Scott Giffin (174). Two others were ranked in the preseason (Thomas Shovlin at 197 and Trey McClean at 285).

That leaves 133, 141 and 184 pounds as the three big question marks for the Quakers.

At 133, sophomore Bryan Ortenzio probably has the head start after going 2-0 during the team's wrestle-offs. It would seem that senior Rick Rappo, who qualified for the NCAA's last year, would wrestle at 141, but sophomore Zack Kemmerer, who saw action in four dual meets, was one of the nation's top wrestlers in high school. Finally, at 184, Colin Hitschler and Jack Sullivan are the team's best options - along with Shovlin, who could ostensibly move down in weight.

"There are some tough decisions," Eiter said.

But there are some easy ones as well, such as to which grapplers the team will look for direction.

Grajales and Peterkin "are the leaders of the program," Eiter said. "They're key. We need them to continue to do what they've done and lead the younger guys."

Although Peterkin is a junior, Grajales will have some help from his other seniors. The class of 2009 has four returning NCAA qualifiers from last year. Add into the mix Dragon, a two-time NCAA qualifier who took last year off due to injury, and you have a strong senior corps.

"As a class, we're ready to push ourselves and succeed on a national level," Grajales said. "We want to be on the podium at nationals at the end of the year."

And if they do, they'll accomplish their ultimate goal of proving that last year was a fluke.

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