Season of change from winter sports to spring arrives for Penn College athletes
As the weather shows signs of change, so do the seasons at Pennsylvania College of Technology.
The men’s and women’s basketball teams wrapped up last week, wrestlers conclude their season this Saturday in a national tournament and on the same day the college’s baseball team is scheduled to step into action for the first time.
WRESTLING
Penn College wrestlers take to the mats in the 9th annual National Collegiate Open Championship at Dover, Delaware, for grapplers not competing in a national qualifier.
“It’s an end-of-the-year open tournament (for individuals) that attracts (mostly) Division I guys that may not be starters,” coach Schuyler Frey said. “It should be very competitive.”
Reflecting on his team’s regular season, Frey said, “It’s been a difficult year with the number of guys staying on the roster. The main thing we’re looking at this second semester and wrapping this year up is just getting the team ready for next year. It’s a small group, but a great group of kids that are really bonding … I’m sure they are going to do some big things next year.”
Wrestling at Dover will be sophomore Ben Doll, of Glen Mills, in the 125-pound weight class; junior Zach Fitzsimmons, of Eldred, at 141; freshman Joe Swank, of Shanksville, at 149; senior Tanner Leid, of New Holland, at 165; freshman Andrew Hurd, of Spring Mills, at 184; and freshman Dylan Otis, of Towanda, at 285.
“It would really be great if we could get some placement. The top six are given the accolade of All-American, so that’s what we are looking for,” Frey, in his seventh season, said.
In previous postseason tournament action under Frey, Penn College won the Penn State University Athletic Conference Championship in 2011-12, finished second in 2012-13 and third in 2013-14. It finished third in the United States Collegiate Athletic Association Championships in 2011-12 and 2012-13, was sixth in 2013-14 and fifth last year; and, in the National Collegiate Wrestling Association Championships it finished 77th in 2010-11, 17th in 2011-12, 20th in 2012-13 and 24th in 2013-14.
This past week, as the regular season came to a close for the Wildcats, on Thursday they suffered losses to Wilkes , 44-9, and King’s, 48-12, and on Saturday to Ursinus, 47-3, and Penn State Mont Alto, 30-21, to end 1-15. In contested matches against Wilkes and King’s, Swank and Otis got the lone Penn College wins. Leid won by decision against Ursinus.
BASEBALL
Coming off a season during which his team won the North Eastern Athletic Conference championship, coach Chris Howard had high hopes for last year’s squad that never materialized. This year he looks to get things back on track.
“We had a really nice recruiting class this year; a lot of good, hungry freshmen have come in and that always helps. When new blood enters into your program, that helps rejuvenate a lot of people. It’s not just freshmen that are excited but it gets the whole roster excited,” Howard, in his 11th season, said.
“Last year we just could never right the ship and it exposed a lot of things that we needed to improve on, whether it was our physicality as an athlete, getting bigger and stronger. Clearly, our defense was just not very good last year, which is something that was new for our program. … That is something that we absolutely have to improve on this year. And hitting, we never got that timely hit. We struck out way too much,” the coach, whose career record at Penn College is 225-138, continued.
The Wildcats, who finished 13-23 and 4-8 in the conference last year, are scheduled to open their campaign Saturday at noon with a doubleheader at Lebanon Valley College. A week later they go to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, to play seven games before returning for their home opener March 24.
Among the key returning players are junior pitcher Aaron Palmer and sophomore second baseman Cole Hofmann. Palmer, who ended 4-2 with a 2.09 ERA, was named to the All-NEAC First Team last season and was a United States Collegiate Athletic Association Honorable Mention. Hofmann, who hit .336 with a team-high nine doubles and 22 runs batted in, was named to the All-NEAC Second Team.
In a preseason poll of NEAC coaches, Penn College was picked to finish sixth. Penn State Berks earned the top spot followed by Lancaster Bible College, Penn State Abington, SUNY Poly, Keuka College, Penn College, Gallaudet University, Cazenovia College and Wells College.
MEN’S BASKETBALL
Bringing their season to a close with games on Friday and Saturday, the Wildcats fell on Friday at Keuka, 73-59, as Ben Sosa, of Loyalsock led the team in scoring with 22 points. On Saturday, they completed a 9-16 season and 7-13 conference mark after an 87-77 loss at Wells . Sosa scored 27 points and Erik Perry added 17 points. Senior Thomas Ross, of Williamsport, scored 12 points to close out his career with 1,044, sixth-best among men in Penn College history.
Statistically speaking: Marquis Delgado, of Mansfield, finished fifth in the NEAC with an average of 4 assists per game; Ross was ninth with an average of 7.5 rebounds per game; Jesse White, of Harrisburg, was 10th with an average of 7.2 rebounds per game; Delgado was 11th with an average of 1.7 steals per game; Sosa was 15th with an average of 15.1 points per game; and Erik Eichinger, of Villanova, was 15th in 3-point shooting percentage at 34.5.
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
On Friday at Keuka, Penn College fell, 74-44. Alicia Ross, of Williamsport, led the Wildcats with 16 points and Gwendolyn Lavelle added 12 points.
Closing out its season on Saturday at Wells, Penn College lost, 66-36, to finish 3-22 and 3-17 in the NEAC. Lavelle led Penn College players with 12 points and Jane Herman scored 11. Ross, the team’s lone senior, didn’t play and closed out her career as the Wildcats’ all-time leading scorer with 1,515 points.
Statistically speaking: Herman finished third in the NEAC in 3-point shooting percentage at 38.5, Ross was fifth with 3.2 steals per game, Ross was ninth with 1.1 blocks per game, Ross was 13th with 17.1 points per game, Ross was 17th with 7.1 rebounds per game and Herman was 19th with 2.7 assists per game.
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