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.

1) It might be spring break, but big Penn sports news keeps on coming. In a move that isn’t that surprising, Penn will not re-sign women’s basketball coach Pat Knapp. That’s what happens when your winning percentage at Penn is .348.

2) Here is the final Schuylkill 16 of the year.  I’ve really enjoyed participating in this poll, and hopefully it’ll continue next season.  Something I never really noticed until now, but the college basketball regular season (well including this Championship Week) is 17 weeks — just as long as the NFL.

3) In exactly a week one of the best-attended NCAA tournaments will being — I’m talking about wrestling of course.  Surprisingly, one of the biggest challengers to the perennial Big 12 and Big 10 favorites is Cornell, who is ranked second in the nation.  The Wall Street Journal, of all things, has a nice profile on the Big Red and their unprecedented dominance this year.

Since there’s a chance that you might need a subscription for that link to work, I’ll excerpt the first part of the article after the jump.

(more…)

Wrestling might be the most underrated sport here at Penn.

In its 103 years it has had three Olympians, five NCAA champions, 23 All-Americans (including at least one in every year from 1997-2007), 61 EIWA champions and 60 first team All-Ivy selections. Yet covering it last season I got the sense that because it shares a season with men’s basketball, it always received the attention a middle child gets.

Whether or not as a direct response to this, Penn Athletics recently started a weekly feature called the Penn Wrestling Report. Each edition will review the past week, preview the upcoming one and have an interview with a wrestler. But of all its features, “What I Learned About Wrestling This Week,” might be the most informative. It will discuss a different wrestling term each week, starting with “The Cement Mixer.” Considering the rich, yet confusing, lexicon of wrestling, this might be quite the entertaining feature.

Rob Eiter was formally named the Penn wrestling head coach today. He had been the interim head coach after Zeke Jones stepped down to take over the head coaching position for USA Wrestling.

A full article will appear in tomorrow’s DP.

• New Hampshire 42, Dartmouth 6
• Brown 24, Harvard 22
• Cornell 17, Yale 14
• Towson 31, Columbia 24
• Princeton 10, Lehigh 7

And if you need something to distract you from Penn’s loss in Easton yesterday, look in today’s and Tuesday’s DP for analysis of Penn wrestling coach Zeke Jones’s resignation.

Wait — less than two months before the season, the coach of one of Penn’s better programs leaves town?

Surprised?

So was I.

St. LOUIS — Welcome to the nightcap of day two here at the NCAA Wrestling Championships from Scottrade Center. Only two Penn wrestlers remain, sophomore No. 9 Rollie Peterkin (125 pounds) and junior Zack Shanaman (165). Both need a win in their first bout to earn All-American status. Peterkin faces No. 10 James Nicholson of Old Dominion and Shanaman No. 5 Stephen Dwyer.

—————————————————————————————————————————

Peterkin starts off the fourth session for Penn, looking to earn his first All-American honor. The majority of the first period is even, but with just :07 left, Peterkin earns a takedown. Nicholson earns an escape in the second, but gets injured doing so. However, after roughly 1:30 of his 2:00 of injury time, he bounces back up. In the third, Peterkin, starting from the bottom position, escapes just eight seconds in, pushing his lead to 3-1. However, with just :25 showing Nicholson earns a takedown to tie it up. And Sudden Victory it is. After thirty seconds of close, but scoreless wrestling, Nicholson breaks through, earning a takedown with :28 to go. And just like that Peterkin’s season is over. Immediately after the call, Penn coach Zeke Jones gets furious, jumping out of his chair with his arms raised in anger. Peterkin also is visibly upset, as he throws down his headgear in disgust. [NB I saw Jones a few minutes after the loss, and he had calmed down.]

Right as Peterkin lost, another 125-pounder captivated the attention of the crowd. Arizona State sophomore Anthony Robles was born with one leg, yet he was a state champion in high school, and has made a splash in the NCAA’s. Just like Peterkin, he came into tonight’s session needing one win to claim All-American status. But just like Peterkin, he lost a 5-3 sudden victory decision. Right as he lost on mat six, people around mat six started clapping as a sign of respect, and as news of his exit — so close to All-American status — spread, the entire stadium started clapping, rising to give him a standing ovation.

——————————————————————————————————-

The last match of the day, Shanaman vs Stephen Dwyer of Nebraska, was a back and forth affair. But in the end, Shanaman didn’t get enough. Dwyer paced the first with a takedown at 2:05 and an escape at :41, until Shanaman finally broke through with a takedown around :10. In the second, Shanaman continued his success with an escape at 1:00 to tie it up. In the third period both wrestlers scored. But it was Dwyer, with a takedown around 1:00, and not Shanaman with an escape towards the end of the period, that determined the match. Final score: 5-4 Dwyer.

With the loss, all Penn wrestlers have been eliminated. However, Coach Jones did say the team would stay tomorrow and watch the finals “so they can get the whole experience.”

This year marks the first time since 1996 that Penn left the national tournament without an All-American.

As for myself, I’ll continue blogging tomorrow, even without any Penn wrestlers in action. I’ll probably provide some statistical analysis, such as Penn’s record vs teams for various conferences, as well as updates on how Cornell is doing. (eighth place last time they updated it).

ST. LOUIS —With the graduation of Matt Valenti and Matt Herrington, Penn had no returning All-Americans in wrestling this year. But with a win tonight in the third round of the NCAA tournament, both sophomore Rollie Peterkin ad junior Zack Shanaman will become All-Americans. However, if either of them lose tonight here at the Scottrade Center in downtown St. Louis, they will be eliminated from the tournament, despite coming so close to entering the history books. No pressure, right? “I just need to focus on this next match and ignore all of the implications,” the 125-pounder Peterkin said. “Every match is going to be tough. It was tough losing [yesterday] but I’ve got momentum.” Both Shanaman — who wrestles at 165 — and Peterkin lost their second round bout yesterday after winning in the first round, so they’re in the wrestleback portion of the bracket. Even though, losing yesterday wasn’t ideal, Shanaman is still fine with his current status. Being a win away from All-American “is good,” he said. “It’s where I want to be. Hopefully I can win one more. Actually hopefully I win a lot more.” A win clinches All-American status, but after that there are still three more matches to determine the third through eighth place winners. While Shanaman did qualify last year for Nationals, this is the first national tournament for Peterkin. “It’s a different mindset,” Peterkin said of the NCAA’s. “It’s a whole new experience, the big crowds. There’s lots of pressure every match since it’s a new level of competition.” And with an All-American spot up for grabs tonight, that competition will be even higher.