It was an up and down day on the Matts.
If your name was Valenti or Herrington, you cruised through the first day of competition at the NCAA Wrestling Championships in Auburn Hills, Mich.; if you were an Eveleth, you were sent packing after an upset.
Eveleth, a senior coming in as a No. 12 seed at 125 pounds, fell 5-0 to another Philadelphia wrestler, Steve Mytych of Drexel.
"It was difficult to watch," Penn coach Zeke Jones said. "Matt's really had such a wonderful year, winning the EIWA championships, and [on] the road to maturity that he's been on over several years. I know it wasn't exactly what he wanted this year."
And it just wasn't Eveleth's day as he went on to lose 8-3 in the first round of wrestlebacks, ending his tournament stint already.
No. 2 Valenti at 133 pounds and No. 10 Herrington at 174 posted strong showings, including Herrington's pin of Northern Iowa's Alex Dolly in 6:07 minutes during the first session.
"They're just really on track," Jones said of the pair, who are the only Penn wrestlers still in title contention. "I think they've taken it one match at a time and have really done a nice job."
In the second round of competition last night, Valenti, scored a 9-3 win over Indiana's Andrae Hernandez.
Herrington climbed back from a 3-0 deficit to overtake Joshua Weitzel of Oklahoma with three takedowns, the last coming with 42 seconds in the third period.
But the experience gained during those rounds will be more valuable if the two progress deeper into the tournament.
"I think the first day's always jittery for everyone," Jones said. "Right now [Valenti] is settling into his tournament, . getting into his groove."
Today, Valenti will take on No. 7 Mack Reiter of Minnesota in the quarterfinal match, while Herrington will meet Keith Gavin from Pittsburgh.
If the two Penn wrestlers replicate yesterday's result, the semifinal round is set for this evening.
The championship round will be held on Saturday night, broadcast live on ESPN starting at 8 p.m.
The other four wrestlers of the six-man Penn contingent, however, will be watching the action from the stands.
NCAA tournament rookie Zack Shanaman won 5-1 in the first round to advance to round two last night, but was stunned by Iowa's No. 2 Mark Perry. Shanaman was eliminated from title contention after a fall in 1:53 with Perry up 8-0. Shanaman is now relegated to the wrestleback competition.
Along with Eveleth's early exit, two other Quakers wrestlers saw their hopes of an NCAA championship end in the opening round.
Matt Dragon was pitted against No. 1 Trent Paulson of Iowa State at 157 pounds and suffered a fall 3:32 into the second period.
Lior Zamir went down 5-0 at 184 pounds in the first round battle with Jake Varner, also of the Cyclones.
However, Zamir will still see action tomorrow in wrestleback competition.
But the two Matts will wrestle on.
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