Wrestling defeats Princeton, falls to No. 7 Lehigh

Sitting in futility at Sunday's Penn-Lehigh dual meet, sophomore Matt Herrington turned to his assistant coach and one-time Red and Blue wrestler Josh Henson.

"I had a conversation with coach Henson just before the match," said the injured 174-pound Herrington. "I was talking about how hard it is sitting on the sidelines, feeling really helpless.

"And he goes, 'Welcome to the world of coaching.'"

The sophomore wrestler has not competed for over a month since the NWCA National Duals in Cleveland. And, on Sunday, the bite was especially hard as he watched the 17th-ranked Quakers (8-9, 4-1 Ivy) fall to No. 7 Lehigh, 24-9, in the last dual meet of the season.

The Engineers are 22-4.

Just two days before, the Red and Blue had dominated Princeton (2-12, 0-5), 37-3.

"Princeton and Lehigh are totally different teams," Henson said. "Lehigh is battling with the No. 1 team in the country [Oklahoma State], Princeton's been struggling a little bit lately.

"I'm not really that surprised [at the loss]. They have a tough team and they wrestled pretty well today."

Against the Engineers at the Palestra, the Quakers needed Herrington and their other injured starter, 184-pounder Paul Velekei.

Instead, the pair was caught on the outside looking in, as their teammates lost seven consecutive matches.

A 7-4 decision by Penn's third-ranked 125-pounder, sophomore Matt Valenti, started the action. The Red and Blue would never hold the lead again.

"We were sitting together out there," Herrington said. "Velekei and I both feel the same way -- it's real hard watching our team lose when you can't do anything to change it."

In the fourth match of the day, the Quakers seemed to have an opportunity to turn the meet around. Penn freshman Rob Hitschler held a 4-1 advantage over Lehigh's Matt Anderson. The Engineers' 149-pounder, however, battled back to claim a 9-8 overtime victory.

Penn coach Roger Reina felt that Hitschler's weight class was critical to the outcome of the dual meet. He knew it would take individual upsets to result in a cumulative victory, but the Quakers failed to deliver any.

"We thought we could do that at [133] and potentially at [157] -- those are two weights that we needed to win to put ourselves in a position to win this dual. We also felt it was going to be a good, competitive match at [141]," Reina said.

"We needed those," he added. "When we lost each of those three, it was really going to be out of reach."

Contributing to the Quakers' downfall were injuries and a lack of favorable matchups. Only Velekei, 197-pound Marcus Schontube and heavyweight Matt Feast were favored over their opponents.

With the regular season concluded, the key for the Quakers is to return Velekei and Herrington to health. They have two weeks until the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association Championships, which will be held in the Palestra.

Neither expects to continue in his quasi-coaching role. According to Herrington, they both are near 100 percent and could have wrestled against Lehigh, but refrained for fear of re-injury.

Reina also expressed optimism on the wrestlers' returns. With Velekei and Herrington back, Penn will finally have its starting lineup in place.

It will be as if a new season had started -- or, as Reina put it, a second season.

"We need to recognize it's the second season -- the tournament season -- and it gives us a fresh start," he said. "No one's scored any points as far as the Eastern Championships or the NCAA Championships.

"We have zero. Every other team has zero."

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