On Senior Day, graduating wrestler Andrew Coles made the most of his final home dual bouts in The Palestra with a pair of pins. He needed 2:10 to lock Bryan Panzano of Harvard's shoulders the mat. In his second bout against Bran Crudden of Brown, Coles registered the pin in 4:20.
"I have been lucky to have the chance to wrestle this year," Coles said. "I have tried to take advantage of that and to come away with two pins in my final home meets is special."
Penn had a total of four pins over the two meets. Trey McLean pinned Harvard's Spencer DeSena at 2:41 and Thomas Shovlin added a pin over Brown's Branden Stearns at 4:27.
After a forfeit at 125 gave Penn a quick 6-0 lead against Harvard with a 5-3 decision over Thomas Picarsic at 133 pounds. Neither man scored in the first period and Picarsic scored first with a reversal midway through the second period. Ortenzio countered with a reversal of his own with 45 seconds left in the second frame, but Picarsic took a 3-2 lead with an escape before the whistle. Ortenzio evened the score with a quick escape in the third period and the two spent the rest of the period shooting for two points in hopes of avoiding overtime. It was Ortenzio who earned the hard-fought deuce with a shot at the end of the period, locking in two points with one second left.
Zack Kemmerer defeated Johnny Motley at 141 pounds via technical fall, 19-3.Kemmerer scored backpoints in each period, with the two he earned in the final period after a takedown securing the bonus points for Penn.
Walter Peppelman got Harvard on the board with an 8-4 win over Brett McCurdy at 149 pounds.
Up next was the dual's marquee matchup between No. 18 Matt Dragon and No. 4 J.P. O'Connor at 157 pounds.
Dragon had the chance for first scoring, shooting to the leg early on, but O'Connor was able to pull away before Dragon could lockup both legs. Dragon was again close on the edge of the mat near the scorers table, but could once again not control enough for two points and the two went to the second period scoreless. In the second, O'Connor chose bottom and scored the first point of the match on a technical violation to Dragon for fleeing the mat. O'Connor followed with two more on a reversal. Dragon got a point back with an escape near the end of the period and headed to the third down by two. Dragon chose bottom and was almost turned by O'Connor, but regained his position avoiding the nearfall. O'Connor rode tough for the rest of the period and his riding time advantage gave him the 4-1 decision, cutting Penn's lead to 14-6.
After the first of Coles' two pins on the day at 165, Scott Giffin added more bonus points for Penn at 174 with a major decision over Andy Olsen, 15-6.
No. 10 Louis Caputo won via disqualification over Colin Hitschler at 184 pounds, adding six more points to Harvard's score. Hitschler was DQ'd at the 6:59 mark of the match after his fourth penalty point of the match. Hitschler was penalized for unnecessary roughness in the first period followed by an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty – the first two points of the match for either man. Caputo scored a point of his own at the start of the second period with an escape for a 3-0 lead. Hitschler then was hit with his second stalling warning which resulted in two points for Caputo. Hitschler managed an escape in the third period, but a second unnecessary roughness was enough for the disqualification right before the final buzzer.
Thomas Shovlin ensured no momentum was carried over at 197 with a technical fall over Sean Murphy. Shovlin had a seven-point first period with a takedown and two nearfalls. He allowed Murphy to only score via escapes on his way to the 19-4 win.
McLean closed out the match with his first-period pinfall over DeSena. McLean was up 5-1 at the time of the fall.
After a ceremony honoring the nine seniors who will graduate from Penn in May, the Quakers again needed only three bouts to take a double-digit lead over its opponent, earning bonus points with major decisions from Ortenzio and Kemmerer to go with a decision win from Mark Rappo at 125. After those three bouts, Penn had an 11-0 lead.
After Ricky Bailey got three back for Brown with a decision at 149, Penn won the next three bouts by a combined score of 13-0 to take a commanding 24-3 lead. Dragon defeated Bryan Tracy, 4-0, followed by Dragon's second fall of the day at 165. Giffin the put up his second major of the day with a 14-2 win at 174 over Bran Crudder.
Hitschler took Matt Gevelinger to overtime, but could not complete the win at 184, falling, 6-4, in sudden victory.
After Shovlin's fall at 197, McLean finished off another win with a 17-4 major over Zach Zdrada.
Penn, 10-5, is back in action next weekend with a pair of Ivy matches in New York – against Columbia on Saturday and No. 3 Cornell on Sunday.
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