Wrestling snatches

The problem: underconfidence.

The solution: beat an All-American.

Penn senior Josh Henson may have finally acquired that extra swagger in his step against Iowa on Friday, when he topped returning All-American Ben Shirk, 5-4. At the very least, it certainly appeared that way two days later.

Henson -- one of seven Penn wrestlers to place at the Penn State Open, held on Sunday at State College, Pa. -- won all six of his matches to capture first place in the 165-pound bracket.

"We definitely knew Josh had the ability," Penn coach Roger Reina said. "The next step for him was to clear the mental hurdle, and to do what he did against a returning All-American is a tremendous confidence-builder at this point in the season."

It certainly was on Sunday. Henson won his first match on a pin and cruised into the semifinals, where he met up with redshirting Lehigh wrestler Troy Letters. Henson captured that match with an overtime takedown, and then dominated in a 6-1 win over Maryland's Josh Weidman in the finals.

"The biggest thing the coaches have been talking about with me this year is building confidence, because the guy with the most confidence is going to win most of time," Henson said.

And this weekend, that guy was Henson.

"He's got his confidence going," said Joe Henson, Josh's twin brother. "The past two years he's been nagged with injuries. Now that he's healthy and down a weight class, he looks and feels a lot better."

There's been a common theme to Josh Henson's victories, too -- late-period takedowns. Against both Shirk and Weidman, the Quakers senior scored repeatedly in the last 10 seconds of the match.

"It's kind of like, in football, scoring a touchdown right at the end of half," Reina said. "It gives you a lot of momentum."

Josh Henson wasn't the only Quakers wrestler to earn a top placing at the Penn State Open. Sophomore Mason Lenhard captured the 125-pound bracket with a riveting victory over Indiana's Joe Dubuque in the finals.

Lenhard and Dubuque were deadlocked at one going into the second overtime, and Dubuque won the flip, choosing the customary down position. But the Penn 125 pounder rode Dubuque for the full 30 seconds to claim the victory.

Lenhard wrestled five matches on the day, but that was customary in a meet that included 50 or more wrestlers in many different weight classes.

"That's why we wrestle this tournament, to get experience," Lenhard said.

For most of the Penn wrestlers, Reina felt the experience was a plus. But not for undefeated All-Americans Yoshi Nakamura and Rick Springman, as according to Reina, the amount of wrestling the two seniors did this summer made this weekend's tournament superfluous for them.

If Nakamura and Springman had wrestled, they probably would have finished in the top five of their respective weight classes, giving Penn nine place-winners in 10 weight classes.

"Factoring them in would likely have made this our best performance ever in this meet," Reina said.

Instead, Penn will have to settle for two first-place finishes, three seconds (Joe Henson at 149 pounds, Michael Faust at 197 and Matthew Feast at 285), a third (149-pound Jody Giuricich) and a fifth (184-pound Marcus Schontube).

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