The Daily Collegian Lions to face foes from By Brendan Monahan COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER Fbr West Virginia coach Craig Turnbull, the Nittany Lion- Mountaineer rivalry began in 1990. Turnbull recalled his No a Wo-v Virginia team defeating No 4 Penn State. The Mountaineers won the Eastern Wrestling League title, but maybe more importantly, the upper hand o ■ r the dominant Lions. While the years of the Perm State-West Virginia rivaliy hau faded away after the Lions left the EWL to join the Big Ten. Peru: State wrestling will replay its EWL days at West Virginia on Friday and at Pittsburgh m, Saturday. Former Penn State wrestling coach Rich Lorenzo recalled the EWLs beginning. It started with the Penn State football team leav ing the Eastern College Athletic Conference in the 1970 s Football’s departure lrom ; conference forced every Penn State sport to leave including wrestling, which severed ties wuu the affiliate Eastern Intercollegiate Wiv s 11 in n Association. Lorenzo and other coaciu formed the EWL with Penn State joining in 1976. The iea.s c became, in Lorenzo's terms, a n y three wrestling conference . til only the Big Ten and the in.- -THE GRID Men’s Basketball Lady Lions Women’s Volleyball Wrestling Women’s Track Men’s Track Ice Lions ■'HO* HA Eight, w'hich formed into the Big 12. ahead of it. "The EWL received the third most qualifiers of any confer- Lorenzo said. “We had 'omu tremendous rivalries, and ; 'it! and West Virginia were two of 1 he EWL is now a far cry from tiu third-best conference and has s'.o si m the shadow of the Big Ten, vuv.cii the Lions joined before the season. With the loss of Penn State, the Lions dealt the ' .t' I a difficult blow. The EWL would have wished stayed.” Lorenzo said. “We were getting 40-some qualifiers at that time, and we had built it up frum about 20.” Ken ('hertow was Penn State’s llit-pound EWL champion in 1988 and 1989. Chertow believed Penn State's change from the EWL to :. he Big Ten only benefited the pro gram. This weekend's Penn State-Pitt 'a ; pleased Chertow. and he : -pcs tnc Pitt and West Virginia matchups with Penn State contin ue m ihe future. those are huge Pitt and WVU," .itches for t 'hertow s id. 'it's go d for wrestling that an State goes there. It's proba mnre '■ m ficial to Pitt and s Virgin' . than it is for Penn Plough Penn State was the lira' program as a member of s. Virginia Tech ). 15 Pittsburgh at Florida -st Virginia, at No. 24 8 p.m. Fri., Pittsburgh 7 p.m. Sat. vs. Viagra re White meet Saturday Multisport Facility ue-White meet All Day Multisport Facility Saturday vs. Rider "getthe WOST CAS FOR YOUR H° I,DA SHOPPING! ■Si '# “We had a great world when we were in the EWL.” the EWL, the Lions didn’t always skate through their conference opponents. Lorenzo remembered his team being exuberant after beating a Big Eight school. They would then have to face an EWL team as their next opponent, and the result was usually a slim-mar gin win. “Everybody was hunting for us then because they didn’t have the opportunity to go wrestle the Big Eight,” Lorenzo said. “Their budg ets or their program didn't allow it. They figured if they got a piece of us, they could claim all that we were claiming.” The Lions have already defeat ed a current EWL opponent in Edinboro this year. Edinboro coach Tim Flynn wrestled under Lorenzo with Chertow at Penn State and won the 126-pound EWL title in 1986 and the 134-pound EWL title in 1987. Flynn said there was no ques tion Penn State’s departure hurt the EWL especially when consid ering the Lions were often a top-10 team under Lorenzo. Lorenzo believes the EWL still has talent. TIME PLACE TV WHAT TO LOOK FOR 7 p.m. Saturday 1 p.m. £ryce Jordan Saturday Center 6 p.m. Fri., 4 p.m. Sat. 9 p.m. Friday Greenberg Ice Pavilion 3:15 p.m. Greenberg Ice Pavilion ENN STATE MANAGED BY BARNES & NOBLE COLLEGE BOOKSELLERS MAIN STORE On Cam Rich Lorenzo former wrestling coach Bryce Jordan Center Gainesville, Fla Morgantown, W.Va., Pittsburgh KSTORE 'us In The HUB • 863-0205 old conference Penn State’s Brad Pataky (left) wrestles Bloomsburg’s Jason Guffey Nov. 15. The team travels to Pittsburgh and West Virginia this weekend. but the conference's stock has dominated the EWL and also declined. remained a powerhouse, the con “As far as the depth and the ference’s glory days linger long in commitment, a lot of schools have the past. slid off," Lorenzo said. "Where “We had a great world when we they were trying to compete with were in the EWL,” Lorenzo said, us and stay with us, they have "For wrestling, the EWL was a since slipped and are no longer great conference.” the national-ranked powers." Even though Edinboro has To e-mail reporter: bjmsl46@psu.edu Penn State tries to push its record to 2-0 against the ACC. Can the Lady Lions build off of Wednesday's victory against a more experienced Pitt squad? Lions continue quest for a third straight national cham pionship. The Lions hit the road for two tough dual meets and hope to extend their four-meet win streak. The leers play their last game of the fall semester and won't play again until Jan. 8. Look for this year's freshmen to begin taking center stage for distance and sprints The return of star runners Sam Borchers and Vince McNally. The Ice Lions resume play after being snowed out last Saturday. * sktl MAIN STOR December 7-12 Mon - Thurs Bam-7pm, Fri Bam-spm Sat 11:30am-5pm December 13-18 Sun 12-4 om Mon -Thurs Bam-7pm Friday Bam-6pm EAST HALL BOQKSTOF December 7-11 Mon - Fri 11am-4pm, December 14-18 Mon - Thurs 9am-6pm Friday -9am-4:3opm POLLOCK COMMONS December 14-18 Mon - Fri 11am-4pm Friday, Dec. 11, 2009 I 13
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