Wrestling ends year with 10th place finish

Sometimes things just don't go the way you had hoped.

So went the Eastern Intercollegiate Wreslting Association Championships this weekend for the wrestling squad. Though last year the Tigers sent two wrestlers to NCAAs — Greg Parker '03 and Joe Clarke '03 — this year Princeton will not be able to do so based on EIWA results.

Of the ten members from the team who participated in the tournament, eight fell in the first round. By the semifinal round, every Tiger participant had been eliminated. Senior co-captains Joe Looke and Brian Kirschbaum were the longest-lasting members of the team as each made it to the quarterfinals. However, both collapsed under the weight of their opponents.

Kirshbaum entered as the No. 4 seed in the 133-pound weight class. He entered the tournament on a roll having won all five of his matches in the month of February. He faced off against Brown's Dan Appello in the first round of competition.

He had beaten Appello only a few weeks earlier following a win at Harvard. Kirschbaum easily moved on with a 6-2 win to enter the quarterfinal round.

Kirshbaum's winning streak came to an end against Matt Eveleth of Penn. The Quaker, the No. 5 seed in the class, won a tight contest. He managed to hold off Kirshbaum and won the match 4-3. The loss eliminated the Tiger from the championship bracket.

Because the EIWAs are a double elimination meet, Kirschbaum still had a chance for a possible high finish and a NCAA berth.

His first match in the consolation bracket was against ESU's Dan Gonzales. Kirschbaum walked away with a hard-earned 4-3 victory and kept himself in the running.

He then continued his winning streak against Dare Ajibade from Rutgers in which he took a 2-1 win.

But these were just preludes to what would ulitmately be Kirschbaum's final career match. Wrestling against Army's Bernard Gardner, Kirschbaum matched his opponent's skill and intensity to make the match a high-scoring one with several near pins. Krischbaum's efforts however, could not be sustained and he fell 19-15.

Looke found himself in a similar situation as his teammate. He was the No. 6 seed in the heavyweight class. His first round match was a breeze as he rolled to an 11-2 win over Shawn Coughlin of Franklin and Marshall.

He next ran into the No. 3 seed in his weight class, Stanley Foster of East Stroudsburg University but once again, a Tiger wrestler was overwhelmed in the second round. Foster eliminated Looke from the tournament by a score of 7-1.

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Admittedly, the Tigers faced some tough competition early on, going up against numerous seeded and experienced wrestlers.

Among the Tigers who competed were senior co-captain Kennu Chu, sophomore Matt Piselli, junior Charlie Wiggins, sophomore Matt DeNichilo, junior Jack Fleming, and senior Allen Sista. Their efforts, however, were not enough to allow any of them to advance past the first round.

Despite the poor finish, Princeton will still have a shot at sending someone to NCAAs. The tournament hands out 19 NCAA bids to wrestlers who are successful in the consolation brackets.