NCAA Wrestling Championships - Session 2

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Welcome back to second session of the 2009 NCAA Wrestling Championships, held at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Mo. Before I get started, here is a quick recap of last session and the matches that Penn wrestlers have already wrestled this session.

Last session, the six Quakers wrestlers were only able to produce a total of two wins. Rollie Peterkin, seeded eighth at 125 pounds, won his opening round match over Michigan State's Evan Olanowski, 21-1. Scott Giffin scored a big upset over No. 10 seed Kurt Brenner of West Virginia at 174, outlasting the Mountaineer 6-3.

Aside from those two impressive wins, the Quakers had a lackluster first session. Heavyweight Trey McLean and 157-pounder Matt Dragon both lost in pigtail matches, and Cesar Grajales and Rick Rappo, at 149 and 141, respectively, each lost in the first round.

At the end of session one, Penn was in 31st place with 5.5 points.

Thus far, the second round has been more of the same for Penn. The Quakers had two good matches, a 6-3 win by Peterkin over No. 9 seed Tyler Clark of Iowa State and a 10-5 triumph by Grajales over George Hickman of Bloomsburg. But, just like in the first round, the Red and Blue had to deal with some dissappointment. Both Dragon and McLean ended their Penn wrestling careers on down notes. Dragon lost 11-8 to Ohio State's Jason Johnstone and McLean fell to Cornell's Zach Hammond, 3-1. Both are eliminated from the tournament.

Rick Rappo is still waiting to wrestle his first consolation match.