Wrestling cleans up at Williams Duals

The wrestling team started off its dual-meet season on the right foot at the Williams Duals held in Williamstown, Mass. on Saturday. Princeton easily won all three of its team matches and compiled the most points to take the team title in the seven-team field. Senior Charlie Wiggins continued his strong season performance and was named a tournament MVP.

The Tigers came out strong in the first round and upended Trinity, 40-15. Wiggins (165 pounds), junior Matt DeNichilo (174) and senior Jack Fleming (184) all pinned their opponents, while sophomore Eric Marcotulli (141) and junior Jake Butler (197) each recorded major-decision wins to rack up points for the team. Sophomore Alex Enriquez (157) won by injury disqualification over Steve Viamari, while junior Ryan Foss (133) won by forfeit.

Rolling

In the second round, Princeton continued its dominance, rolling over Western New England College, 44-3. The Tiger lineup only dropped one match. Senior Audrey Pang, the only woman on the team, lost a close bout to James Martinez, 14-8.

DeNichilo and sophomore heavyweight Kris Berr both recorded pins, while Marcotulli and Butler both achieved technical falls to contribute points. Fleming and junior Andrew Iannuzzi (149) both picked up major decision wins while Enriquez earned a decision victory.

The third and final round saw the Tigers roll over NYU, 30-3, in the exact same fashion. Princeton again only lost one bout in the match. Iannuzzi succumbed to Vinnie Russo, 7-3.

The match featured numerous close bouts, but Princeton managed to come out on top the majority of the time.

Marcotulli, Wiggins, DeNichilo, Fleming, Butler, Foss and Enriquez all finished the days with three wins for the Tigers.

Princeton has reason to be optimistic as the entire lineup wrestled close to its potential on Saturday. However, the competition at the Williams Duals was relatively easy, and the rest of the schedule is more or less uphill as the team will face many solid lineups in the conference after break.

Tougher schedule ahead

The Tigers will face their next series of challenges on Thursday and Friday when they take a trip into the midwest to take on North Dakota State, South Dakota State, Morehead State and Northern University.

"We are eager to pick up every win we can along the way," DeNichilo said. "We're looking to come out of our Dakota trip this week with four more dual-meet wins to get our confidence up and prepare for the meat of the season in January and February."

With the loss of several standout wrestlers from the Class of 2004 — including Jake Kirschbaum, Milo Adams and Joe Looke — Princeton will rely on strong wrestling throughout all of the weight classes.

"We don't really have any huge standouts this year, but we realize that we need to all pull together through aggressive wrestling and good conditioning to win matches," DeNichilo said.