Record crowd can't spark Wrestling

The Palestra was electrified Friday night as two top ten wrestling teams met in front of a record crowd.

Unfortunately for many of the 5,109 in attendance, the outcome was a disappointment. The No. 10 Quakers fell to No. 5 Iowa (1-0), 21-12.

Despite the defeat, the Quakers (0-1) took many positives away from the hard fought loss.

"We weren't intimidated," Penn senior co-captain Yoshi Nakamura said. "We take this as an opportunity to look at our team, and when we see them again we'll see how much we improve. This is a great group of guys, and the only way to go is up."

The Quakers opened up the match with a win by senior co-captain Rick Springman, ranked No. 4 in the country among the 174-pounders. He defeated No. 11 Tyler Nixt, 6-2, although both he and his coach agreed he could do better.

"Springman got us off to a decent start but he didn't really hit on all eight cylinders," Penn coach Roger Reina said. "He could've opened it up more." Springman is still working off the rust after taking a leave from the team last season.

"There are a lot of things still to work on," he said. "I'm not where I want to be... it was tough but I could've opened it up more."

"I'm a little bit removed. It's a little more challenging than I thought it would be."

Following the Quakers' opening victory, the Hawkeyes proved why they were one of the top teams in the country, reeling off six straight victories to establish an insurmountable 21-3 lead.

Penn lost two critical individual bouts during that stretch, pushing its deficit to 15-3. Quaker freshman heavyweight Matt Feast lost to ninth ranked freshman Steve Mocco, 7-2, in what was possibly the most highly anticipated match of the night.

Red and Blue sophomore 125-pound Mason Lenhard, ranked No. 15, was defeated by No. 8 Luke Eustice on a controversial takedown in the third round.

"The takedown was awarded early," Reina said. "Lenhard still had control in my opinion."

Despite the loss there was nothing but praise for Feast, who stood toe-to-toe with the highly touted Mocco, who has not lost since his freshman year of high school -- winning 213 out of 214 matches at the prep level.

Mocco outweighed Feast by 40 pounds, as well.

"Feast showed a lot of pride and heart," Reina said. "There are times in wrestling when you can grow even from losses. He comes out of this with more confidence than he came in with and I'm proud of him."

The Quakers went on to win the final three individual matches of the night.

Senior 149-pounder Joe Henson ended Iowa's run with an impressive 8-3 win over Josh Budke. Nakamura, ranked No. 4 in the 157-pound weight class, then defeated Matt Anderson 8-3 using three crowd pleasing inside trips for takedowns. Josh Henson ended the match with an exciting last second escape to secure a 5-4 win over Ben Shirk.

"We're still in the beginning of the season," said sophomore Jeff Evaleth, who lost, 7-1, to No. 12 Marc Juergens in the 133-pound weight class.

"It's a good marker for us for the rest of the year. We can learn from this."

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