VESTAL, N.Y. – All year long, the one word associated most with the University of Pennsylvania wrestling team has been "movement" as a young team made strides towards championship form. After the 115th EIWA Championships, that movement has taken a big step forward and has added a championship to its resume in the form of freshman Anthony Artalona's title at 149 pounds.
 
Artalona's win highlighted a youth-driven weekend for the Quakers. Penn was the youngest team at EIWAs with six true freshmen among its 10 entrants and eight total first-time starters. As a group, Penn's 10 entrants had one combined win at a previous EIWA Championships and entered the weekend without a single returning point from last year's tournament.
 
When it was all said and done, Penn had at least one win from eight wrestlers – including five of the six freshmen – which was up from four winners last year. As a team, Penn finished in 10th with 44.5 points – two spots higher than last year's finish
 
Penn's first freshman EIWA champion since 2006 and the 31st overall champion for Hall of Fame head coach Roger Reina, Artalona won all four of his matches in Binghamton to secure his crown. In the title bout, he needed overtime but connected on the winning single leg takedown 0:22 into the extra period to knock off the No. 3 seed, Jared Prince of Navy.
 
The sudden victory win was the second of the tournament for Artalona and the seventh win in overtime for the freshman this season. He now has 25 wins in his rookie season, the most by a Penn freshman since 2012-13.
 
Artalona has punched his ticket to the 2019 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships in Pittsburgh March 21-23, and he will be joined by classmate Carmen Ferrante who finished fourth at 125 pounds.
 
Ferrante went 3-2 at his first EIWAs, advancing to the semifinals before dropping a 9-4 decision to eventual champion Patrick Glory of Princeton. Ferrante rebounded with a 10-5 decision over Columbia's Joe Manchio in the consolation semifinals to earn a spot in the third place match which earned an automatic bid to NCAAs. Ferrante had two takedowns and a reversal in his win over Manchio to punch his ticket. In the third place bout, Ferrante and American's Gage Curry needed tiebreakers to decide the match before Curry worked an escape right before the buzzer in the second rideout for a 2-1 win.
 
Penn's third placewinner at EIWAs was also a freshman. Doug Zapf entered the tournament as the No. 8 seed and wrestled above that number to a sixth place finish. After a loss in Friday's quarterfinals to eventual champion and No. 1 seed Chas Tucker of Cornell, Zapf won two consolation matches in a row to earn a spot on the podium. He began his day with a sudden victory win over Princeton's Jonathan Gomez, 5-3, before knocking off Navy's Casey Cobb, 3-2, via a third-period takedown. Zapf would fall in his next two matches, including a 7-5 loss to Army's Lane Peters in overtime in the fifth place match.
 
Artalona and Ferrante will learn their NCAA Championships seeding and draws on March 13 at 6 p.m. during the 2019 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships Selection Show on NCAA.com. The first round of the tournament begins at noon on March 21 in Pittsburgh at PPG Paints Arena.
 
125 – #3 Carmen Ferrante – Fourth Place
First Round: def. Ryan Burns (Sacred Heart), 10-0
Quarterfinal: def. Antonio Mininno (Drexel), 6-2
Semifinals: lost to #2 Patrick Glory (Princeton), 9-4
Consolation Semifinals: def. #10 Joe Manchio (Columbia), 10-5
Third Place Match: lost to #7 Gage Curry (American), 2-1 (TB)
 
133 – #8 Doug Zapf – Sixth Place
First Round: def. #9 Lukus Stricker (Harvard), 2-1
Quarterfinal: lost to #1 Chas Tucker (Cornell), 5-2
Consolation Second Round: def. Jonathan Gomez (Princeton), 5-3 (SV)
Consolation Quarterfinals: def. #4 Casey Cobb (Navy), 3-2
Consolation Semifinals: lost to #3 Brandon Paetzell (Lehigh), 5-2
Fifth Place Match: lost to #5 Lane Peters (Army), 7-5 (SV)
 
141 - #10 Al Vindici
First Round: lost to #7 Marshall Keller (Princeton), 13-3
Consolation First Round: def. Gerard Daly (Sacred Heart), 6-4
Consolation Second Round: lost to #8 Wil Gil (F&M), 16-9
 
149 - #2 Anthony Artalona - Champion
First Round: def. Seth Brown (Sacred Heart), FALL (2:26)
Quarterfinal: def. #7 Jonathan Furnas (Cornell), 3-1 (SV)
Semifinals: def. #3 Courtlandt Schuyler (Lehigh), 6-3
Final: def. #4 Jared Prince (Navy), 3-1 (SV)
 
157 - #10 Joe Oliva
First Round: def. #7 Adam Santoro (Cornell), 7-6
Quarterfinal: lost to #2 Josh Humphreys (Lehigh), FALL (2:51)
Consolation Second Round: lost to Quentin Hovis (Navy), FALL (1:26)
 
165 – Evan DeLuise
First Round: lost to #3 Tanner Skidgel (Navy), 2-0
Consolation First Round: def. Crew Fullerton (F&M), 4-1
Consolation Second Round: lost to #5 Gordon Wolf (Lehigh), 6-3
 
174 – Jake Hendricks
First Round: lost to #3 Ben Harvey (Army), 6-0
Consolation First Round: def. Jacob Conners (F&M), 6-2
Consolation Second Round: lost to #5 Vincent DePrez (Binghamton), FALL (6:09)
 
184 – Robert Ng
First Round: lost to #3 Ryan Preisch (Lehigh), FALL (2:19)
Consolation First Round: lost to Trey Rogers (Hofstra), 5-3
 
197 – Greg Bensley
First Round: lost to #1 Patrick Brucki (Princeton), 16-1 (3:41)
Consolation First Round: lost to Phil Robilotto (F&M), FALL (3:20)
 
285 – Ben Goldin
First Round: lost to #2 Joey Goodhart (Drexel), 4-0
Consolation First Round: def. Thomas Ott (Navy), 2-0
Consolation Second Round: lost to #9 Joe Doyle (Binghamton), 18-0 (2:46)