Hey all, Matt Flegenheimer here at Franklin Field for Penn's season opener tonight against No. 2 Villanova. Stay with the Buzz for live game updates on all the action...

Click Here

Welcome to Session IV of the 2009 NCAA Wrestling Championships at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis! Soon up for the Quakers will be their final competing wrestler, No. 8 seed Rollie Peterkin at 125 pounds. A recap of earlier rounds will follow an account of his consolation quarterfinal bout.

Here's a quick recap of everyone's results:
125: No. 8 Peterkin def. Olanowski (Michigan St.), 21-1
No. 8 Peterkin def. No. 9 Clark (Iowa St.), 6-3
No. 1 Donahoe (Edinboro) def. No. 8 Peterkin, 7-3
No. 10 Sentes (Central Michigan) def. No. 8 Peterkin, 4-0
Peterkin's record: 2-2

141: No. 5 Hoehn (Missouri) def. Rappo, 3-2 TB1
Fish (Boise St.) def. Rappo, 7-0
Rappo's record: 0-2

149: No. 3 Caldwell (NC State) def. Grajales, pin
Grajales def. Hickman (Bloomsburg), 10-5
Grajales def. Kyler (Army), 3-2
Barnes (Oregon St.) def. Grajales, 11-3
Grajales' record: 2-2

157: No. 8 Hall (Boise St.) def. Dragon, 8-5
Johnstone (Ohio St.) def. Dragon, 11-8
Dragon's record: 2-2

174: Giffin def. No. 10 Brenner (West Virginia), 6-3
No. 7 Miller (Central Michigan) def. Giffin, 4-1
Onufer (Wyoming) def. Giffin, 5-3
Giffin's record: 1-2

HWT: Everhart (Indiana) def. McLean, 11-5
Hammond (Cornell) def. McLean, 3-1
McLean's record: 0-2

Hello and welcome back to the 2009 NCAA Wrestling Championships. Penn 125-pounder Rollie Peterkin is about to begin his quarterfinal match against No. 1 seed Paul Donahoe of Edinboro, so a recap of last two sessions will follow an account of Peterkin's match. Thank you and keep reading!

Here's a quick recap of the tournament so far for each Penn wrestler.

125: No. 8 seed Rollie Peterkin started strong, beating unseeded Evan Olanowski of Michigan State by technical fall, 21-1. He followed that up with an equally impressive win, outlasting No. 9 seed Tyler Clark of Iowa State, 6-3, to make it to the quarterfinals. Peterkin just lost his quarterfinal match to No. 1 seed Paul Donahoe of Edinboro, 7-3. A full account of that match can be found below.

141: In his final NCAA tournament, senior Rick Rappo had a disappointing performance, going 0-2 and being eliminated on the first day. He looked good in his first match, taking No. 5 seed Marcus Hoehn of Missouri to double overtime before losing 3-2. But he couldn't follow up that strong performance and lost his first consolation match to Cory Fish of Boise State, 7-0.

149: Senior Cesar Grajales started off his tournament with a tough draw, having to wrestle No. 3 seed Darrion Caldwell of NC State. Caldwell proved too fast and explosive for Grajales, notching a pin in the first period. But Grajales was able to bounce back, notching two consolation wins, over George Hickman of Bloomsburg and Mitchell Polkowske of Northern Colorado, to make it to the second day.

157: Like Rappo, 157-pounder Matt Dragon had a dissapointing first day. He went 0-2, losing to No. 8 seed Adam Hall of Boise State and Jason Johnstone of Ohio State. Despite being a senior, Dragon has one more year of eligibility, so he may well be able to make All-American next year.

174: One of the more impressive performances of the first day came from redshirt sophomore Scott Giffin. He started off with a big upset of No. 10 seed Kurt Brenner of West Virginia, 6-3. He then followed that up with a narrow loss to No. 7 seed Mike Miller of Central Michigan, falling 4-1. He will wrestle unseeded Shane Onufer of Wyoming in his first consolation match.

HWT: Senior Trey McLean wrestled one of the first matches of the day, and thus knew he was relegated to the consolations very early after losing, 11-5, to Nathan Everhart of Indiana. He followed that up with a 3-1 loss to Zach Hammond of Cornell to end his Penn wrestling career.

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.

This is Eli Cohen coming to you live from the Scottrade center in St. Louis, Missouri. I'll be posting live updates on the Quakers wrestlers' performances at the NCAA Championships through Saturday. Six Penn grapplers qualified for the tournament, but only one, #8 Rollie Peterkin at 125 pounds, is seeded.

Follow along as I use Cover it Live below.

I'd like to extend a warm welcome to all of our loyal Buzz readers from the Palestra. It's David Bernstein here for tonight's contest between the Quakers and the Yale Bulldogs. It's not a great day to be a Red and Blue hoops fan--and an even worse one to be a Penn fan at the Palestra. The Quakers haven't won an Ivy contest at home yet (4-5 overall), but will look to push themselves back up to .500 in conference play tonight. They fought Yale to a narrow victory up at John J. Lee Amphitheater in Connecticut, and we'll see if Penn can notch its first season sweep of the year.

(more...)

Greetings from the Palestra, where Penn will take on the Harvard Crimson for the second time this season. Both teams are coming off of tough losses -- Harvard to Princeton, and Penn to Dartmouth. The Crimson, at only 2-7 in the league, are hungry for a win to salvage this road trip, while the 4-4 Quakers need a win to remain a somewhat legitimate longshot to contend for the league. Stay tuned to The Buzz for live coverage throughout the night.

Evenin' from the Palestra, where Penn (8-13, 4-3 Ivy) is looking to avenge an early-season nail-biter loss to Dartmouth (6-16, 4-4 Ivy), the program's first in 23 straight meetings.  The Quakers have a little more spring in their step this time around, coming off of a three-game win streak, all of them on the road.  Penn will be keeping a wary eye on forward Alex Barnett, who averages 19.5 ppg and dropped 24 on the Quakers the last time they met. - Ashley Humienny

FINAL Penn 59 Dartmouth 69

(more...)