Late heroics not enough as wrestling drops close meet to Drexel

With a quick move, Parker grabbed on to the Drexel wrestler, put him off balance and then threw him to the mat. Only 18 seconds into the match, Parker earned the Tigers six points with the pin. As exciting as senior Greg Parker's 18-second pin was, his dominating performance came too late for Princeton. Wresting the final match of the meet, the Tigers still trailed by too much for Parker to help his team win.

The Tigers (1-4) have a challenging schedule, but facing Drexel last Friday was one of the meets that Princeton was supposed to win. After an opening win by junior Matt Fisher, the team lost the next three matches, and left itself too far behind to catch up, losing, 20-17.

Fisher started the meet with a decisive victory at the 197-lb. division. Fisher clearly out-wrestled his opponent, winning the match 11-6. Now 3-1 in dual meet competition, Fisher has been one of the Tigers' most consistent wrestlers this season.

Wrestling in the heavyweight division, junior Matt Hawrilenko followed Fisher, but he was unable to match the earlier success. Facing one of Drexel's best wrestlers, Hawrilenko managed to keep the match close but he could not pull out a win against Mike Carroll, losing 6-3, which evened the overall meet score at 3-3.

The Tigers then dropped the next two matches at 125 lbs. and 133 lbs.

Senior John Knorring broke the losing streak and helped pull the Tigers back into the meet by easily beating Drexel's Bill Heverly, 9-1. Winning the 141 lb. match by major decision, Knorring wrestled one of his strongest matches of the season. Knorring had trouble with Heverly the past few times they met, but Friday Knorring dominated his opponent.

Filling in for the injured senior Joe Clarke, Knorring made Clarke's absence less painful for the team, by winning a match that clearly Clarke would have had no trouble with.

Princeton needed to win two out of the last three matches to come back and win the meet. But at two of the most difficult weight classes, 165 lbs. and 174 lbs., the Tigers had two first year starters in sophomore Charlie Wiggins and junior Andy Avsec. Wiggins and Avsec could not win these crucial matches, losing by close scores, 8-5 and 5-3, respectively.

By the time Parker had the chance to wrestle, the Tigers were trailing 20-11, and were too far behind for their best wrestler to have an impact. The Tigers would have preferred to have Parker wrestle in the middle of the match, where he could have helped change the momentum, but with the 197-lb. division starting the meet, Parker's 184-lb. match was the final competition of the night.

"Having Parker wrestle in the middle makes a huge difference for us," head coach Mike New said. "I can almost always count on him for a dominating win, and that kind of presence does a lot more for the team in the middle of the meet than it does in the final match."

Parker certainly demonstrated his worth as he pinned Drexel's Pat Shufelt in 18 seconds. But the positive momentum and the six points gained by Parker's dominating win went for nothing, as the Tigers were still three points short.

Going into the match, New expected Drexel to match up pretty well against the Tigers and anticipated the Knights to win three matches, but the other three were supposed to be split, he believed. Of the four matches the Tigers have won this season, not one of them has been close. So far this season, pulling out close matches has been a challenge for the Tigers.

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"A few of our guys can dominate every match they wrestle, but the rest of the team needs to win the close matches. We are not there yet, but winning those close matches is a major part of the maturing process," New said.

The light schedule throughout January should help the Tigers remain healthy going into their Ivy League dual meets. While Clarke decided to miss Drexel to let his shoulder injury heal and junior Joe Looke has yet to compete in a match, the rest of the team is pretty much healthy, which is very different from the Tigers' health at this point in the season last year.

Friday was the Tigers' first dual meet since winter break, and the only meet scheduled before the end of January. The team will next compete Jan. 30 against Lehigh.