Wrestling's Parker takes second nationally, restores sport's status

There is no swagger in Greg Parker's voice as he tells the story of his triumph in the semifinals of this year's NCAA tournament. Sitting on his bed in a tiny room in Cuyler Hall, Parker's voice rises and trembles, his excitement clearly building as he runs through the match.

He is in Albany, New York, his hometown. Otto Olson, Michigan, the opponent, the top seed, a three-time All-American, 39-0 in his senior year. Parker, Princeton '03, the fourth seed, 33-1. Parker has warmed up in a Harry Potter T-shirt. Sometimes he takes things too seriously. He needs something to keep his mind above the moment. He gets nervous, makes mistakes. Last year it was the Grinch. This year, at the NCAA Championships in front of 15,000 fans, it's an 11 year-old wizard.

Parker was also named The Daily Princetonian Men's Athlete of the Year, amid considerable competition.

Olson, confident and aggressive, takes Parker down, scores first. He thinks he has found a weakness. He lets Parker back up. He'll try the same sequence again. Parker stops him. Not by dodging or slipping Olson's grasp, but by attacking. Parker shoots in on the favorite and heaves him to the mat. The hometown crowd explodes. The out-of-town crowd explodes. Parker settles in.

The two trade points back and forth over the next few periods, bringing the score to 8-8 in the waning minutes of the final period. Parker scores again. 10-8. The seconds tick away, and Olson desperately lunges for the last time, but Parker turns him away. Another point, 11-8. Time expires.

Suddenly Parker was the hero of the tournament. Reporters hounded him for the story of the local boy made good. He stood shoulder to shoulder for photographs with Cael Sanderson, the Iowa State wrestler who by winning the tournament finished his college career undefeated. There they were, the powerhouse midwestern state school product Sanderson, likely the greatest college wrestler of all time, and surprise finalist Greg Parker, whose school's wrestling program was disbanded until just six years ago.

Parker suffered through sleepless nights, battling to press his body forward. By the championship match on March 23, though, his body could take no more. Early in the match with West Virginia's Greg Jones, Parker again attacked, but the sortie put his body in an awkward position. A rib on his right side just below his pectoral muscle cracked, and Parker was rendered ineffective. He wrestled on, and did not go down easily, but in the end the quick Jones was too much for a wounded Parker.

And so a championship year ended with a second-place finish. After losing his second match of the year, 3-2 to Jones in November, Parker reeled off 32 consecutive victories. Along the way, he was 5-0 in Ivy League matches and won Princeton's first Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association title in 16 years. He is the first Princeton wrestler to reach the NCAA finals since 1985.

Late last spring, B.J. Prager '02 won the men's lacrosse team the national title with his overtime goal against Syracuse. Then this fall, Mike Nugent '02 and Matt Behncke '02 led men's soccer to its most successful season in years, and both were drafted by Major League Soccer teams. In the winter, Jesse Gage '03, Carl Hessler '02, and Garth Fealey '03 all broke Princeton records while helping men's swimming beat Harvard at Easterns for the first time in seven years.

And lastly, Tora Harris '02 was consistently astounding in the high jump, winning the NCAA indoor title, re-setting his own Princeton record, and tying the Penn Relays record with a jump of 2.30 meters – seven feet six, and a half inches. He went on to post the second best jump in the world this year (7'7".)

But in addition to his season's achievements, what set Parker apart from these athletes was his significance to the Princeton wrestling program. Since returning to the varsity level, the wrestling team has often struggled while trying to gain a place among the sport's powers.

With a wrestler of Greg Parker's caliber in the stable, though, Princeton wrestling is no longer a lightweight. Thousands of young wrestlers turned to ESPN for the championships, and there they found Parker, in Princeton's glowing orange singlet, representing the University at the highest level.