Facing two of the best teams in the region, the Tigers were unable to pull out victories. Princeton wrestled in two meets this past week, facing Lehigh at home Thursday and travelling to Cornell Saturday.
Against the Mountain Hawks
In the first meet, held in the friendly confines of Dillon Gymnasium, the Tigers surged out of the gate, refusing to back down and be intimidated by Lehigh's top-five national ranking. Junior Brian Kirschbaum got things rolling by earning a tough 6-4 decision in the 133 lb. division. Senior John Knorring followed him up with a hard fought 3-0 shut out victory in the 141 lb. division.
When senior captain Joe Clark secured Princeton's third straight victory in a thrilling 18-14 match, it began to look like an upset of the powerhouse Mountain Hawks might be underway. The score stood 9-0 as each Tiger wrestler had earned three teams points for his victory.
However, the Hawks recovered in the next three matches and earned 17 team-points with two consecutive victories by pin and a third by tech fall.
Now down 17-9, the Tigers called on senior Greg Parker, the only Princeton NCAA wrestling finalist in the last fifty years, to win back the momentum at the 184-lb. weight class. Parker was not to be denied and, as he had done 99 times before as a Princeton Tiger, he walked off the mat a victor having just recorded his 100th win with a 4-2 victory over Lehigh's Matt Frick.
Parker's victory cut the lead to 17-12 but in the end the Mountain Hawk's proved too strong, winning the final three matches on their way to a 31-12 final victory. But even with the loss, the Tigers' four wins against Lehigh was a good sign for the team's depth.
Against the Big Red
The next meet for the Tigers was Saturday against another national powerhouse program, sixthranked Cornell. This meet featured a much-anticipated showdown between two of last year's all-Americans, as Greg Parker faced off against Cornell's Clint Wattenberg. Wattenberg, ranked second in the nation at the time, jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the first period with two takedowns on seventh-ranked Greg Parker.
Parker grabbed a takedown of his own in the second period to cut the lead to one and escaped early in the third to tie the match at 4-4. Wattenberg then scored another takedown to go up two more points, only to see his lead evaporate when Parker scored a reversal at the end of the third period to send the match to overtime.
A scoreless first OT period left the match still square after nine minutes and led to a thirty second sudden death which Parker won with an escape with 12 seconds left to go in the match.
"I knew Wattenberg would be a tough competitor and I was a little worried after the first period. But I was confident that I could pull out the win the entire time," Parker said.
This victory was crucial because it puts Parker on track to be the No. 1 seed at the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association tournament where he will be defending his 2002 title.
Matt Fischer, wrestling next at 197 lbs., carried on the Tigers' momentum by earning a pin and closing Cornell's lead to five points. The rest of the meet, however, fell Cornell's way and the Tigers were unable to secure another victory despite a close-fought and thrilling match by Clark at 141 lbs. The final score was 35-9 in favor of the Big Red.
Though the Tigers lost both the meets this past week, they showed an ability to wrestle with tough national contending teams. The best sign for the Tigers is its depth and ability to win at many different weights.
The Tigers' next meet will be against Harvard at Dillon Gym on Friday.
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