Columbia Wrestlers Shut Out by Stronger Penn Squad

The Columbia men’s wrestling team battled against the Penn Quakers on Saturday, and lost by a score of 46-0. The score is deceiving, however, as more than a few Lions nearly upset their opponents.

The Lion wrestlers knew they were the underdogs in the match, and that it would be a hard-fought competition all across the board.

“Penn has a lot of really talented natural athletes and other kids that were really successful in high school, and they’ve been taught great techniques,” sophomore wrestler Mike Gerstl said. “Their team was so stacked it was absurd.”

The differences stopped at that; Columbia’s wrestlers were clearly in superior shape to their Penn counterparts.

“Overall, our guys wrestled tough, but we were obviously outmatched in some aspects,” Gerstl said. “Yet one area where everyone on our team showed up was conditioning. It was very obvious that we were in much better condition than them. And that was actually kind of surprising to some of us, since they are eighth in the nation. That was definitely a high point for us.”

Besides their physical dominance, the Lions also saw notable performances turned in by junior Steve Popovitch, sophomores Mike Gerstl and Dan Green.

Popovitch, who was battling an illness, lost to his Penn opponent by one point and Gerstl, at 197 pounds, lost by two and almost upset his competitor, but just missed a takedown at the end of the match.

The Lion wrestlers had prepared for this match-up by adopting a tough mentality, which they used to brave the hostile environment of a foreign arena and an inflated opponent. Despite their fierce determination, the Lions were not successful in finishing off their opponents.

“There were some matches where we gave up some stupid points that we could have won,” Popovitch said. “We all wrestled our kids pretty close. Coming in, we were the underdogs, so none of us were supposed to win.”

Columbia’s next opponent is league foe Cornell, which is currently ranked 25th in the nation. The Cornell Big Red fought the Quakers on Saturday and suffered a close loss by a score of 21-9. Cornell defeated only three Penn wrestlers, which is significantly similar to the number of close matches between Columbia and Penn.

“We have the confidence that we’re right up there with Cornell,” Gerstl said. “It’s definitely not going to be a blowout. We’re right there, and it’s going to be competitive. We just have to go out there and rely on our conditioning and what we’ve been taught.”

Steve Popovitch agreed with Gerstl, saying, “Cornell is a solid team. We have to go out and accomplish a few things, fight and battle like we did this week—surprise them a little bit, and wrestle as hard as we can every match and hope to come away with some wins.”