PHILADELPHIA--After pouncing on the Tiger wrestling team Friday night at Princeton, the No. 27 Harvard wrestling team (5-4) was unable to overtake the 15th-ranked Quakers (7-0-2) in Saturday's battle at the Palestra.

Marked by a combination of exciting victories, disappointing losses and intense rivalry, the meets proved a mixed success for the Harvard grapplers. Although it is now part of the past, this weekend's experience still leaves the team with much to look forward to--and some unfinished business to settle--in the coming weeks.

"We wrestled well but we still didn't put it all together," said Harvard Coach Jay Weiss.

On Friday, the team got off to a terrific start as it came and conquered in a veni, vidi, vici fashion. In a convincing 32-8 rout, the grapplers won all but two matches, turning the Tigers (6-3) into kittens in their own backyard. HARVARD  32 PRINCETON  8 HARVARD  12 PENN  23

Freshman Brandon Rhoades sparked the team with his 7-0 win at 125 pounds. Sophomore Matt Picarsic would follow suit in the 133-pound weight class, dismantling his opponent 18-7. Senior tri-captains Dustin DeNunzio and Joel Friedman easily extended the winning streak with decisive 10-3 and 13-0 victories in their respective 141- and 149-pound classes.

Junior Kevin Kurtz pinned his foe in the 157-pound weight class, and at 184 pounds, and junior tri-captain Fran Volpe crushed his opponent 14-1.

"We wanted to pick the pace up and wrestle like it was 0-0 the whole time," Weiss said. "Princeton is not at the level yet, but they are getting better."

Sophomore Brad Soltis gave a similar pounding at 197 pounds, winning 21-6. Freshman Dawid Rechul rounded out the night with a 5-2 victory at heavyweight.

Yet while Harvard basically earned a perfect score on its test with Princeton, Penn offered a much tougher challenge. Ranked 15th in the country going into Saturday's match, the Quakers boast several nationally-ranked wrestlers and were last year's Ivy League and EIWA champs.

At the start of the season, the Crimson finished ahead of the Quakers at the Ivy Kickoff Classic on Nov. 14, winning the tournament while Penn took second. But in last season's dual meet between the two Penn defeated Harvard 21-9. Despite a solid effort by the injury-ridden Crimson on Saturday, Harvard fell to the Quakers 23-12.

The Crimson wrestled without junior Joey Killar--ranked No. 7 at 165 pounds--who is battling a rib injury. Junior Tom Kiler, as he has the past two weeks, made the jump from 157 pounds to wrestle in Killar's spot.

Soltis was forced to withdraw against Penn's undefeated Andrei Rodzianko at 197 pounds late in the third period due to injury.

After some tough matches early on gave Penn the upper hand, DeNunzio, ranked No. 9, ignited a potential comeback by putting Harvard on the board with an impressive win over 14th ranked Quaker tri-captain Mark Piotrowsky.

"Dustin did a great job. He is a lot better than him [Piotrowsky] and he showed it today," Weiss said.

DeNunzio completely dominated Piotrowsky, maintaining a comfortable lead the entire three periods and eventually finishing him off with a 10-5 victory.

"I just had to keep wrestling tough," said DeNunzio. "I have wrestled him five times and I knew I needed to turn it up. He is a good wrestler and a top competitor."

At 157 pounds, junior Kevin Kurtz brought the Crimson within four with his thrilling overtime victory over 11th-ranked Yoshi Nakamura, who leads his team in wins (26) and takedowns (69). Losing 1-3 going into the final minute, Nakamura forced the match into overtime but still met with defeat after a commanding takedown by Kurtz to end the match.

"I was trying to concentrate on having fun out there," said Kurtz. "I got up early in the match and decided not to worry about winning."

Sophomore Adam Truitt came up with a terrific win over Ryan Slack in the 174-pound weight class. After a scoreless first period, Truitt got the better of Slack in the second and went on to a 4-2 victory.

At 184 pounds, Volpe went up 2-0 in the first period, and never looked back. He extended his lead throughout the next two periods, resulting in an impressive 53 win.

Yet it was the final match of this grueling day that proved to be one of the highlights of the weekend for Harvard. Although it gave Penn three points on the scoreboard, Harvard got the real victory as Rechul forced Penn's 9th-ranked Bandele Adeniyi-Bada to fight down to the wire. Though he lost the match 5-6, Rechul's stellar performance against a top ranked wrestler--who has a 21-3 record and 59 takedowns--sent a strong message to his Ivy foes, giving them plenty to worry about this season and in seasons to come.

"Dawid did an outstanding job and showed some really smart wrestling," Weiss said. "He made a huge adjustment overnight."

Closing out the weekend, his match provided a moral victory around which the team can now rally. The two schools meet again at EIWA's in several weeks and next time, Adeniyi-Bada and his Quaker team might not be so lucky.

But for now the team is excited to wrestle its first home matches of the season this weekend at the Malkin Athletic Center. The wrestlers will have a busy weekend, facing Boston College and Cornell on Friday and UMass-Lowell and Cornell on Saturday.

"We wrestled really hard but we are not at 100 percent," said DeNunzio. "[This weekend] we plan to go in there and dominate."