Penn Sport_Spring08.indd - University of Penn Athletics

Wrestling Crowns Three EIWA Champs; Second as a TeamLANCASTER, Pa.—For the second time in asmany years, and the third time in five years, thePenn wrestling team emerged from the EIWAChampionships with three individual championsas Rollie Peterkin (125), Cesar Grajales (149)and Lior Zamir (184) took home titles fromFranklin & Marshall. It was the first EIWA crown inall three cases.However, what may have been the storywas the final team score. When the final pointswere tallied up, the Quakers had 127.5—a mere0.5 fewer than Cornell, at 128.0. It made for anexcrutiating and emotional couple of hours asthe various weight classes rolled through theirchampionship matches at the Mayser Gymnasiumon F&M’s campus.You have to go all the way back to 1960, whenformer members Penn State and Pitt tied for thetitle, to find a race so close at this event.Army finished in third place, with 90.0 points, while Navy was fourth with 82.0 points.“It is emotional,” said head coach Zeke Jones, his watery eyes unable to mask how emotionally spent he was. “Think about it—therewere 238 matches this weekend, and we lost by half a point. That is incredible. We came in here with a lot of points to make up from seeding,and as an underdog, and we almost got all the way back. I think the guys came in really motivated, and it showed on the mats the lasttwo days.“Prior to this event, one of the goals that we set was to be the most improved team from the regular season, and I think we showed that,”he continued. “I am so proud of how our guys stepped up.”Penn qualified eight wrestlers for the NCAA Championships in St. Louis—Peterkin, Grajales and Zamir were joined by Rick Rappo (141),Zack Shanaman (165), Scott Giffin (174), Thomas Shovlin (197) and Trey McLean (285). At EIWAs, Rappo and Shanaman were runners-upin their weight classes; Giffin and Shovlin earned third-place finishes; and McLean received a wild-card entry after his fifth-placestanding.Though he probably would have been happier holding the team trophy, Grajales was left smiling at the end of the awards ceremonywhen he was presented with the Coaches’ Trophy, given to the outstanding wrestler at the Championships. He became the second Quakerin a row to receive the honor—Matt Eveleth took it last year —and the fifth in the 104-year history of the event.A few weeks later in St. Louis, Penn’s eight grapplers took on their first round opponents. Peterkin and Shanaman both advanced whilethe others fell to the consolation side of the bracket and with the exception of Zamir and Grajales were knocked out of contention. Theadvancing pair bowed out after their second consolation match. On the front side of the tournament, Peterkin and Shanaman were bothdefeated in the second round, but won their next two bouts in consolation before dropping out in the third consolation match.Other Memorable Events ...Josh Harris W’86 and his family dedicated a new men’s lightweightshell in memory of his father and former rower Jacob Harris onMay 3 (top left). The 1988 men’s lacrosse team held a reunionon May 3 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of its Ivy title andNCAA run (bottom left). The men’s and women’s tennis teamshoisted their 2007 Ivy Championship banners on May 4. Theteams also received their championship rings and enjoyed a“hit around” with tennis greats Dick Stockton andVirginia Wade among other alumni in attendance(bottom right). The1988, 1989 and 1990 baseballteams also reunited to celebratetheir Ivy Championshipson April 27. The men’s soccerteam hosted a varsity vs. alumnigame on April 19 (top right)while swimming and sprint footballheld alumni events in NewYork City during May.