Wrestling wins final three matches to topple Harvard

The Princeton wrestling team started off a busy weekend of competition with a dramatic victory last Friday night over Harvard.

With the Tigers down 19-16, junior heavyweight Joe Looke took the mat for the first time this season needing a victory to propel his team to its first EIWA dual win of the year.

Late in the third period of the match, with the score tied 1-1, Looke scored a two-point takedown, sealing the deal in the heavyweight bracket and driving the final nail into Harvard's coffin.

Looke's 3-1 victory tied the overall match score at 19-19. Princeton were declared the winner by virtue of a lead in overall near falls recorded, the eighth tie-breaking criterion.

The miraculous ending was more than the result of Looke's triumphant return to the starting lineup. Senior standouts Joe Clarke and Greg Parker both won impressive victories at the 141 and the 184-pound classes, respectively. Junior Milo Adams added crucial points, earning a hard fought 7-5 decisions at the 157-pound class.

The biggest boost, however, came from junior Matt Fisher, who overcame a knee injury to pin Harvard's Eddie Jones in the 197-pound contest and score six points for Princeton.

Fisher has been wrestling exceptionally well this year and has played a large role in all the Tigers' victories.

With his emergence coinciding with Looke's return to the mat, it looks like the Tigers will have two very competitive upper-weight wrestlers following Parker at 174.

This back-to-back-to-back trio of Parker, Fisher, and Looke proved its ability against Harvard and should provide a steady anchor for the Tigers throughout the rest of the year.

Lions and Tigers and Bears hit the mat the following Saturday as the busy weekend continued with Princeton wrestling duels against Ivy rivals Brown and Columbia. The Brown match initially played out before the home crowd at Dylan Gym much as the Harvard match had done the night before.

It seemed to be another tight contest that the Tigers might be able to pull off at the end. Unfortunately, most of the Tigers' magic must have been used up the night before, as the team eventually fell to the Brown Bears, 22-14.

Junior Brian Kirschbaum got Princeton rolling with a 6-0 shutout victory over Brown's Dan Appello. Clarke followed that up with a dominating 39-second pin that moved Princeton into the lead.

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After the victory, however, the Tigers went cold and lost the next four matches. It was in this stretch that the duel was lost.

Senior John Knorring lost a close 4-3 match at 149 pounds that could have gone either way and junior Andy Avsec lost an equally tight 3-1 overtime decision at 174 pounds. The Tigers needed to win at least one of these matches to have a legitimate chance to win down the stretch.

In the last three matches only Parker was able to score a Princeton victory.

He continued his EIWA domination by thoroughly dismantling Brown's Pete Gladish, 16-0, and running his individual record up to 14-4 on the year.

The prior week, Parker was named EIWA Wrestler of the Week when he recorded his 100th career victory against the No. 2 wrestler in the nation. Against Cornell, Parker, himself ranked seventh in the country at the time, defeated Cornell's Clint Wattenberg in a 7-6 thriller.

In the final duel of the weekend Princeton traveled up to Columbia for a duel with the Lions commemorating the 100th anniversary of collegiate wrestling.

In 1903 Columbia wrestled Yale in the nations first ever college wrestling meet.

However, it was the tired Tigers that looked like they were wrestling in their first ever meet this past Saturday. Columbia pounded Princeton, 33-6, with Parker representing the Tigers' lone victory.

The Princeton wrestling team will rest this week before getting back on the mats this Friday in a home duel against Rutgers.