Harper pins title hopes on 8 national qualifiers

Will eight qualifiers be enough for Harper College in the NJCAA Division III national wrestling tournament next weekend?

Harper coach Dan Loprieno hopes it will be -- although he's used to going to the event in Rochester, Minn., with at least nine wrestlers in 10 weight classes and a regional title.

Harper finished an uncustomary third after taking the regional title eight of the last 10 years. But Loprieno still sees championship possibilities for a program that won national titles in 1994, 2001 and 2006 and was second last year.

"The eight we've got going are pretty tough," Loprieno said. "I think we have a real good shot at the national title because of the kids we have going."

Loprieno thinks all of his qualifiers have a chance to earn All-America status. Darius Williams (top-ranked in the country at 174 pounds), Grant product Mike Dace (third-ranked at 165) and Steve Siokos (133) won regional titles.

"All three have a shot at doing some things in nationals," Loprieno said.

Josh Lahman (141) and Shea Geradot (184) took second, Bryan Jansen (157) and Alex Delonis (heavyweight) took third and Hoffman Estates product Danny Miller (197) finished fourth in the regional.

They'll be crucial to Harper overcoming Nassau (N.Y.) and Gloucester (N.J.), which Loprieno sees as the top competitors in the non-scholarship division.

"The national tournament is won in the trenches," Loprieno said. "It's the guys in the wrestlebacks who have enough guts to come back after a loss that will be the ones who win the tournament for us.

"We got some good draws and some bad draws. If you get a good draw, you've got to take advantage of it by winning."

And winning is always the goal for a program that has finished in the top five at the last six national tourneys.

"Our expectations are high," Loprieno said. "(At the regional) I pulled the guys aside and said, 'We've won this the last six years, to them we're still the favorite and they're all trying to beat us.'

"It's hard for them to understand. They don't understand the tradition."

Loprieno hopes they do after next weekend.

Not bad at all: Winning two out of three was a nice boost after the Harper women's basketball team had endured a 13-game losing streak.

Harper (5-19, 2-6) snapped it with an N4C upset of Joliet. Emily Vierneisel had 23 points with the go-ahead 3-point play with a little over a minute left, Katy Spencer added 12 points and Jenny Murray scored 11.

Murray had 14 points and 14 rebounds in a 71-40 loss to College of DuPage. But Harper didn't let another losing streak start as it beat Wright 53-45.

Murray had another big night with 19 points and 11 rebounds, Kassie Kissane had 13 points, and Spencer was solid with 7 points, 7 assists and 6 rebounds.

Ending the slide: The Harper men's basketball team (17-9, 3-5) finally had the right stuff as it ended a three-game losing streak with an 80-79 N4C win at Wright.

Mike Silungan's 2 free throws with 6.9 seconds left gave Harper a 4-point lead and rendered a last-second 3 meaningless. Bobby Rhodes had 19 points, Fred Taylor 16, Jon Winsor 11 and Andy Merklein 9 for the Hawks.

Rhodes (20 points per game), Taylor (19 ppg) and Silungan (14.3 ppg) carried the Hawks through their losing streak.