What rivalry?
Penn wrestling crushed Princeton in a blowout victory on Senior Day last weekend.
Penn and Princeton came into the Palestra looking to bounce back after their respective losses to Lehigh and Stanford. In the end, the Quakers showed out with a dominant 31-7 victory against the Tigers in their last home meet of the season.
Penn started the meet strong with sophomore Max Gallagher getting a decision victory against formidable opponent Ethan Rivera in the 125 weight class. Senior Ryan Miller followed that up with a dominant 16-3 showing in what will be his last scramble at the Palestra. Following that, senior CJ Composto (141) won by tech fall with five seconds to go in the third period, bringing Penn’s overall score to 12-0.
After those three straight wins for the Quakers, one of the most anticipated matches of the night took place: freshman Cross Wasilewski looked to extend his 13-match win streak against Princeton's Ty Whalen, who stepped on the mat fresh off his victory against Stanford’s Jaden Abas. After the first period ended in a standstill 0-0, it became clear that these two combatants were near equals.
“I got to give respect to Whalen,” Wasilewski said post-match. “Not a lot of opponents come at me like that.”
Wasilewski and Whalen both scored escape points in periods 2 and 3, making the score 1-1 as the match went into sudden victory.
“We battled, we battled for seven minutes and then extra. And you know, I felt him breaking a little bit … and I just kind of pushed through and found that takedown in the end,” Wasilewski said.
Those 3 points secured Wasilewski the victory in the overtime period — setting the team and crowd to their feets cheering.
“This team has the best support system, just the best guys. They’re brothers,” Wasilewski said.
The Red and Blue continued their hot streak with sophomore Jude Swisher shutting down his opponent in the 157 category. Later, senior Nick Incontrera had a similarly dominant showing in his duel against Princeton’s Xavier Giles.
Despite winning two matches in the meet, the Tigers became frustrated and emotions started to boil over as the Quakers continued their electric momentum. After an accidental eye poke from senior Max Hale, one of the Tigers' coaches stormed out of their seat and complained. “Hey, how about we keep these guys out of our eyes, every time! Every time!”
Hale went on to win a close 4-3 victory against Princeton's Kole Mulhauser.
The last match was a roaring clash of titans with freshman John Pardo facing off against the Tigers’ Sebastian Garibaldi. Pardo landed a stunning takedown in the last few seconds of the second period, once more setting the Palestra ablaze.
“There’s nothing like it, you know,” Pardo said referring to the raucous crowd. “When times are tough at practice, I just think about how everyone’s coming out to watch, everyone’s supporting me, win or lose, I got nothing to lose.”
Throughout the meet, the Tigers raised concerns about stalling, eye pokes, and false start calls.
“You could tell the Princeton bench was not having it. They were broken,” Pardo said.
Not only was this the seniors’ last meet at the Palestra, but it was also head coach Roger Reina’s last campaign at The Palestra before he steps down at the end of the season.
“I was really proud of how these guys stepped up today, you know, there’s a great rivalry with Princeton and we really came out to dominate today — up and down the line — I thought we had some really inspiring performances,” Reina said.
“We got this momentum today going into our final dual meet up at Rutgers,” Pardo said. In particular, the team has their “eyes on the Ivy League Championship Tournament.”
The Ivy League Championship is a one-day tournament on March 9 between the top wrestlers in the Ivy conference, where combatants will compete for NCAA bids.
“That’s the way our guys will qualify onto the NCAA championships and then we’re incredibly proud to be hosting the NCAA championships here in Philadelphia,” Reina said, “It’s something we worked very hard for and won the bid, so our guys get to wrestle in their home city.”
Looking ahead to their duel against Rutgers, Wasilewski is confident in his team's chances.
“We got this," Wasilewski said. "Absolutely, we got this."
Penn is set to meet Big Ten opponent Rutgers on Feb. 19 for their final dual meet of the season.
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