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.