Wrestling preps for ranked foes

Fresh off last weekend's dominating performance on the west coast, Penn will be returning to the friendly confines of the Palestra on Sunday. The Red and Blue will be going up against Big Ten foes Purdue and Penn State. In their only other home match to date, Penn dominated the Keystone Classic. With 11 wrestlers reaching the top six and senior co-captain Jody Giuricich accompanying Matt Feast and Paul Velekei as champions, the Quakers elevated their performance at home. "It's nice to be back home," Giuricich said. "Even though the weather out in California is a lot nicer." This weekend's opponents should present a good challenge to Penn's current winning ways. Penn State comes to the Palestra ranked 13th in the nation and boasting five wrestlers ranked in the top-10 by Amateur Wrestling News. The Nittany Lions are 2-0 in dual meets and finished fifth in the highly contested Midlands Open, a tournament at which Penn finished 23rd. The Quakers, however, have seen many of Penn State's wrestlers before -- as both teams competed in the Nittany Lion Open -- and are confident heading into this weekend's match. "I think that we match up pretty well with them," Giuricich said. "We have a good chance to beat them." Purdue will be no pushover, either. Making the trip from East Lafayette, Ind., the No. 16 Boilermakers bring with them a 9-1 record. Despite the high level of competition Penn will be facing this weekend, the Red and Blue will not be in search of mere moral victories. "We set goals at the beginning of the season, and one of those goals was to never be intimidated by an opponent," Giuricich said. "We want to be aggressive all the time. Despite being such a young team, we know we can compete with and beat any team we face." During the team's trip to California, the Quakers showed they could do just that. In the first dual meet of the season, the Red and Blue dominated an overmatched Stanford squad, beating them, 38-6. Despite losing both the first and last matches of the meet, the Quakers were able to sandwich eight consecutive wins in between the trouncing of Stanford. Matt Valenti, Feast and Ethan Bullock all recorded wins. "We are excited for the dual meet season to begin," Giuricich said. "The win over Stanford was big. In open tournaments we don't get to see each other wrestle very much; it really brings us together as a team." After beating Stanford, Penn -- led by Giuricich and freshman Matt Herrington -- soon followed with a first-place finish at the Aggie Open held at UC Davis. After last week's successful west coast swing, the Red and Blue were rewarded with a national top-25 ranking. But the team knows that these recent accolades will mean nothing if its performance diminishes. "We aren't really concerning ourselves with the rankings," Giuricich said. "We are going about business as usual and we know that if we continue to win that the rankings will come."

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