Wrestling | Peterkin lone Penn rep in finals

See a photo slideshow from the tournament here.

The wrestling season may almost be over, but Penn's ninth-ranked 125-pounder Rollie Peterkin still feels he has plenty of room to improve.

And he plans to start by examining his most recent failure, a 5-2 loss to Cornell's Troy Nickerson, who is ranked second in the country, in the finals of the March 7-8 Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association tournament.

"It exposed some flaws of mine," Peterkin said. "Definitely left a bad taste in my mouth."

That bad taste apparently runs in Ithaca's water because the entire No. 2 Cornell team rubbed just about everybody the wrong way en route to a dominating win, racking up 138 points to the outpace No. 7 Lehigh's 103.

No. 24 Penn (12-7, 6-3 EIWA) finished tied for third with Bucknell after mustering only 79 points of its own.

From the start of the tournament to the end, it seemed like Cornell vs. The Field, as the Big Red (12-2, 5-0) were able to advance seven of ten wrestlers into the finals.

Penn had just one finalist in Peterkin, and he lost to Cornell's Nickerson.

Despite the loss, Peterkin put together a very impressive showing, notching a collective score of 45-1 in his first three matches before falling in the finals.

"[Rollie's defeat] is a loss on the record, but I still think we're closing the gap," Penn coach Rob Eiter said. "And that's why you always want to wrestle top competition."

At least statistically, Peterkin did close the gap - after losing by four points in Penn's dual match against Cornell, the deficit was only three in the rematch.

For all the positives that Peterkin gleaned from his performance, senior 149-pounder Cesar Grajales, ranked 14th nationally, had just about as many negatives.

Grajales entered the tournament as the No. 4 seed and defending champion, but fell victim to a couple of disappointing performances.

He lost a 2-1 tiebreaker match in the quarterfinals to No. 5 seed Kyle Borshoff of American, and then fell again in the consolation semifinals.

The second loss, a 4-2 defeat at the hands of Lehigh's Trevor Chinn, was particularly rough because Grajales had lost to Chinn earlier in the season by the same two-point margin.

Still, Grajales feels confident he can bounce back in the NCAA Tournament - held at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis from March 19-21 - in which he earned an automatic berth for his eventual fifth-place finish.

"I have to put it in my past," Grajales said. "The biggest thing was getting to nationals."

Grajales will be joined at the NCAA tournament by five other Quakers. Aside from Peterkin and Grajales, 157-pounder Matt Dragon and his 174-pound teammate Scott Giffin earned automatic spots, placing fourth and sixth, respectively.

Add on to that at-large berths awarded to 141-pounder Rick Rappo and heavyweight Trey McLean, both seniors, and the Red and Blue have an impressive crew heading to St. Louis.

And if any of those six hope to become first-time All-Americans, they will need to keep their nose to the grindstone until the very end.

At least, that's the opinion of two-time All-American Nickerson.

"It's definitely persistence [that separates good from great]," he said. "Every match is a dogfight out there."

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