In more of a pride match than a pure rivalry, this weekend the Tigers faced one of the most difficult opponent to lose to — Rutgers. Battling the Scarlet Knights on Friday, the Tigers then traveled to a tri-dual meet on Saturday against Franklin and Marshall, Navy and Delaware State. After a full weekend of meets, the Tigers finished even, winning two and losing two.
These were critical meets as three of the four teams are members of the Eastern Interscholastic Wrestling Association (EIWA) in which Princeton competes. The Tiger wrestlers were looking to do well to assure a favorable seeding in the EIWA tournament next month.
On Friday night the showdown at Dillon Gym matched Princeton against fellow Jersey competitor and EIWA rival Rutgers. At No. 5 in the EIWA rankings, Rutgers came in the favorite against the unranked Tigers.
The fans showed up in force for the dual but victory was not to be as the Tigers lost, 25-9. Seniors Joe Clark and Greg Parker recorded Princeton's only two wins and in doing so continued their respective dominance over EIWA opponents in the 141 and 184 pounds class.
Rutgers started off the meet strong, by winning the first four matches of the evening. Senior John Knorring opened up the meet at the 149 lb. division, but was not able to upset Rutgers' highly ranked Greg Austin, losing 13-2.
Princeton lost again at 157 lbs., 165 lbs. and 174 lbs. Parker finally broke the losing streak, winning by technical fall at five minutes and 23 seconds into the match. But after Parker's match, the Tigers could not pull out another win until the final match of the meet, when Clarke defeated his 141 lb. opponent, 12-4.
Parker is ranked No. 1 in the EIWA and is the league's defending champion at 174 lbs. Clark, who was off the mat last year, is ranked No. 5 in the league and could move up, as he has not faced three of the four wrestlers ranked ahead of him.
Though the Tigers lost the dual, Clark and his teammates did appreciate the fan support. "The support of a ruckus hometown crowd always gets you a little extra pumped up to do your job," Clark said.
Princeton, however, had to leave the hometown edge behind the following day when they traveled to Lancaster, PA. for the remaining three duals of the weekend. In the first match Princeton dismantled host Franklin and Marshall 26-14, disposing of the Diplomats with wins in six of the 10 weight classes. Parker and Clark won again and were joined by juniors Brian Kirschbaum, Milo Adams and Joe Looke and senior Seth Dunipace.
The Tigers kept on rolling in their next match and soundly defeated Delaware State 37- 6. The match was a mixture of old and new contributors. Senior Josh Nichols and junior Allen Sista both recorded major decisions at 149 lbs. and at heavyweight, while Clark and Dunipace both returned to score their second victory of the day at 133 lbs. and 141 lbs.
The final meet of the weekend pitted the Tigers against Navy, another tough EIWA opponent.
The lightweights started well with Seth Dunipace winning a hard fought 3-1 upset against Navy's Sam Gray, who was ranked No. 4 in the EIWA at the time. Two weight classes later Joe Clark followed by pinning his opponent Nate Gullash at 4:13 into the match and chalking up his third win of the day.
Princeton was unable to muster much more until Parker scored the team another six points with a dominating pin at 184 lbs. Parker struck quickly, defeating Navy's Travis Manion at 1:18 into the first period. Parker's victory was his 107th and tied the Princeton all time victory record.
Parker's victory was the last one the Tigers got, however, and Navy won the meet 32-15.
Princeton takes the mat again this Friday with an important dual meet against EIWA and Ivy League rival Penn. The match should be closer than it appears it may be. The Tigers match up well against Penn and the team is confident that they can make a run at the Quakers.
"If we wrestle well as a team, like we did against Harvard, we can definitely beat them," senior John Knorring said.
The Tigers have pulled off an upset like this once already this year, so look for Princeton to play homecoming spoilers this upcoming Friday at Penn.
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