Wrestling set for EIWA championships

It's not exactly what head coach Mike New and the rest of the wrestling team had in mind at the beginning of the season — 12-9 overall, 2-3 in the Ivies, and a fourth place finish in the league. But all of the close matches that went the wrong way and all of the meets that could have been won will be forgotten if the Tigers are successful this weekend.

The Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association championships are the finale to each wrestling season. It is a huge tournament, featuring all the Ivy League teams and several other teams from Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York.

This championship will also provide the Tigers with an opportunity for revenge against some of the teams that defeated them during the season.

Princeton will enter its entire starting lineup in the tournament, with one wrestler at each weight class. With an almost entirely healthy team, coach New is glad to have his starting lineup back, especially senior Scott Pasquini.

The Tigers are confident in every wrestler that will compete this weekend, but they are relying primarily on their four best wrestlers to score enough points to place the team in the top six.

Senior Ryan Bonfiglio, junior Juan Venturi, and sophomores Joe Clarke and Greg Parker are the leading candidates to place in the top five at the tournament.

Having already wrestled most of the top seeds this season, Bonfiglio is particularly motivated, because he has had a lot of success against them. Going back to the old sports adage, "You are only as good as your last game," Bonfiglio should do well, since he beat the top-ranked wrestler in the region at 165 lbs in the Cornell meet last Saturday. Going into the tournament, Bonfiglio will probably be ranked fifth. Even with several important wins over top-ranked wrestlers, Bonfiglio has lost a few matches he was expected to win.

Wrestling at 141 lbs., Clarke has been a consistently perfect wrestler for the Tigers. Going undefeated through the Ivies, Clarke has beaten many of the top wrestlers in the country this year. Clarke is expected to be seeded second or third in the championships this weekend.

Finally getting to wrestle for himself, Parker will have the chance to focus only on his matches and not the overall score of the team this weekend. Parker has won almost every match this year, but in a few he needed to beat his opponent by a wide margin in order to earn Princeton more points. At times, such an aggressive style cost him those matches.

Fortunately for Parker, he can wrestle for only himself during the championships. So far this season, Parker has had great success in large tournaments, including a first runner-up at a North Carolina tournament in late November. Parker should be either the third or the fourth seed at the championships this weekend, but coach New and the Tigers are relying on him to make it to the championship match.

At 133 lbs., Venturi is not entirely healthy, but he should be at full strength going into the weekend. With several wins over top-ranked opponents, New expects Venturi to be either the second or third seed.

With four highly-seeded wrestlers, Princeton should be successful this weekend. But in the mind of every member of the team, a sixth-place finish would be a letdown. Each member of the team expects a finish in the top three. For the Tigers to reach such a high finish they will need more than just four wrestlers to perform.

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"To win it, we need all four of the guys, Parker, Clarke, Bonfiglio and Venturi, to reach the championship match at their weight class," New said. "But we also need many of the other guys, like [senior Jeff] Bernd, [freshman Brian Kirschbaum], [junior Jonathon] Bunt, Pasquini, [senior Chris] McLaughlin and [senior Joe] Rybacki to place highly. We cannot have one guy make a stupid mistake and exit early," New said.

The tournament is a double-elimination tournament, with a seeded bracket and a consolation bracket. If a wrestler survives the first day without two losses, he would have to wrestle four matches. The championship and runner-up matches, as well as wrestle-offs, will be held Sunday.

With 15 teams involved in the EIWA championships, Princeton will have a lot of competition. The early favorites are Lehigh and the three Ivy League champions, Harvard, Penn and Cornell. Rutgers, which beat Princeton earlier this year, should also be very strong. Princeton has not won the championship since 1978, but for the Tigers to have a wrestler in a championship match would be a feat in and of itself, as no Tiger has reached an EIWA championship bout since 1989.