Wrestling places five semifinalists

Entering this weekend's highly competitive Michigan State Invitational, Penn senior wrestler Brett Vanderveer had never reached the semifinals at a major tournament.

He's had opportunities to place, but the elusive round has always inched outside of his grasp.

Not this weekend.

Despite jumping two weightclasses this year, the 157-pounder won three matches on his way to the semifinal round, before losing on a technical fall to Kent State's Mike Tolar.

"I'm happy with the way I wrestled but there is still a lot I need to improve on," Vanderveer said. "I just think that I'm bigger and stronger because of the new weight class."

Vanderveer was joined in the semifinal round by 285-pound Matt Feast, 197-pound Paul Velekei, 184-pound Marcus Schontube, and 125-pound Matt Valenti in East Lansing. None of the Quakers succeeded in making the final round.

Vanderveer is one of five seniors on a team that has one of Penn's best freshman classes in recent memory.

"In my experience, we've had certain levels of success that have led to higher levels of recruting -- it comes in waves," Penn coach Roger Reina said. "This is just another wave rising in the progress of the program."

Vanderveer was not the only senior to impress during the meet.

Despite losing to Ohio State freshman Joe Pflug in the first round, Penn senior captain Jody Giuricich sped through the 149- pound consolation bracket. He defeated Plug in a rematch and Ohio State's preseason No. 16 Josh Daugherty.

"The tournament got off to a slow start," Giuricich said. "But once I settled in and got used to competition, it picked it up. I felt better by end of tournament."

He sure did. Penn's senior ultimately won the fifth-place match, competing in more matches on Saturday and Sunday (10) than any other member of the team.

With an extremely young team that features 15 freshmen, the senior class will be counted on to lead the green Quakers in the coming year.

"Our number one goal is to develop as a team faster than any other team in the country," Reina said. "We must use what we took from competition, take it into the practice room and practice with a new level of intensity and experience every day in practice."

Valenti, a junior national champion and part of Penn's heralded freshman class, jumped out to the start that Reina had hoped.

But despite Valenti's experience at multiple levels during high school, the college game brought new challenges.

"It was alot more physical," Valenti said. "Also, every kid you wrestle [in college] is going to be good. There's no such thing as a slouch."

Penn's bright rookie class has seen what it is aiming for by wrestling these traditional powerhouses. Now Penn just needs to develop.

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