Checking in on ranked Penn teams: January 2023 Edition

With the winter sports season over halfway done, many Penn teams are finding success. Three teams — men’s squash, women’s squash, and wrestling — are currently ranked top 25 in the country. Let’s take a look some recent events for each of these teams.

Wrestling

Penn wrestling is currently ranked No. 24 in the nation and are coming off a dominant defeat of No. 20 Lehigh Friday night at the Palestra, powered by seven individual victories for the Quakers. The Quakers jumped off to a hot start, with two victories from Ryan Miller and Michael Colaiocco to give the Red and Blue a 7-0 lead. The Mountain Hawks were able to get on the board to make it 7-3, but victories by Doug Zapf, Cole Spencer, and Lucas Revano gave the Quakers a 17-3 lead, before Ben Goldin sealed off the Penn victory, with a final score of 23-11.

Including Friday’s victory, the Quakers have enjoyed a strong month of success, highlighted by a second-place finish at Northwestern’s Midlands Championship and home victories over Army and North Carolina. Penn is currently second in the Ivy League behind Cornell following Sunday's 25-9 defeat of Columbia. 

Men’s Squash

Penn men’s squash is currently ranked No. 2 in the nation and has been dominant all season long. Before Sunday’s match against Harvard, the Quakers were 11-0, and had only lost two games of a total of 99 played. They recently completed a four-game gauntlet against No. 13 Chatham, No. 8 Cornell, No. 9 Columbia, and No. 10 Dartmouth, and went 4-0, and won every single game in each of those matches. However, against Harvard, in a rematch of last season’s national championship, Penn dropped its first match of the season, losing 5-4. The next CSA rankings are due to come out on Tuesday, and it remains to be seen how far the Quakers will drop. Strong performers include sophomore Nathan Kueh and freshman Rehan Luthra, who have gone 8-0 and 7-0 this season, respectively. 

Women’s Squash

Penn women’s squash, while not enjoying the same dominance as their male counterparts, are still having a very strong start to the season and are currently ranked No. 9 in the nation. Their 2022-23 campaign so far has been highlighted by strong wins against No. 11 Stanford and No. 10 Dartmouth in Hanover, N.H. on Saturday. Sophomores Emma Carter and Grace Lavin have been breakout players for the Red and Blue this season, going 3-0 and 4-0, respectively. The Quakers also faced off against Harvard on Sunday in their worst performance of the season, losing 9-0 to a No.2-ranked Crimson squad.