Preparing for arguably its hardest schedule in recent memory, the wrestling team opened against one of the best teams in the nation.
Competing Saturday in the Edinboro Duals in Edinboro, Penn., the Tigers (1-2 overall) had three dual meets in the span of a day.
Princeton began the day with Findlay, then took on Eastern Michigan, and finally ended its day against No. 11 Edinboro. The Tigers lost their first and third matches of the day, but got their first win of the year against Eastern Michigan in between.
With the roster still in limbo, head coach Mike New uses the early meets both to give his team more experience and to evaluate his team.
"I was not sure what to expect this weekend," he said. "We have a number of guys who have proven themselves before, but I did not know what a lot of the guys were going to look like at all."
Senior Juan Venturi and junior Greg Parker have shown no letdown after their highly successful seasons last year. Venturi has moved to a higher weight class, wrestling at 141 lbs. this year after competing at 133 lbs. in his earlier seasons. Venturi was 2-1 on the day, winning his matches against Findlay and Eastern Michigan but failing to pull out a win against Edinboro.
Like Venturi, Parker enters this season with the goal of earning All-American honors. He began his campaign exactly how he wanted to, going 2-0 on the day by winning against Findlay and then pinning his opponent from Eastern Michigan. Parker did not wrestle against Edinboro because of an illness that worsened throughout the day.
The Tigers earned their first win of the season against Eastern Michigan, prevailing, 23-13. Senior Jon Bunt, wrestling at 165 lbs., and Parker led the team in point scoring, with both wrestlers winning their matches by a technical fall. Venturi won his second match of the day, beating his opponent with a major decision and putting the match out of reach for Eastern Michigan.
Princeton ended its day in a dual meet against the host school, Edinboro. The Fighting Scots were too much for the Tigers. Edinboro dominated its matches against Princeton, as sophomore Milo Adams, wrestling at 149 lbs., was the only Tiger to win a match against the Fighting Scots. Adams finished the day 2-1 and made his claim to the challenging 149 lb. position.
"I was happy to win my match against Edinboro. It just feels really good to be competing again. We have a strong team, but it will take us a little while to get everyone in place and for us to get some momentum."
Besides graduating several of the top wrestlers from last year's team, the Tigers are also missing junior Joe Clarke.
"There is a lot of youth on this team and the guys need to learn how to win at the collegiate level, and that will take some time, but I have a lot of confidence in these guys, and I think they will be really strong," New said.
"We have a lot of depth at every weight. Looking at our roster, there are a lot of sophomores on this team, so we will need them to mature quickly," New said.
Only half the team went to the Edinboro Duals. The other group of wrestlers travelled to Bloomsburg, Penn., to compete in a tournament.
Sophomore Matt Hawrilenko finished third in the heavyweight division and several other underclassmen also had success in this tournament.
"The beginning of the season is always very important. We want everyone to wrestle in these tournaments to gain experience, but we also use these tournaments to choose our top guy at each weight class," New said. "This team has great senior leadership. I have high expectations for this group."
The Tigers will compete in various tournaments this weekend, and then open their home season on Dec. 1, when they will host Drexel.
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