Depleted squad heads to EIWAs

In other sports, there are the playoffs. Nothing a team does during the season really matters once it gets there. Everything's 0-0 again. The Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association Championships (EIWAs), to be held at Lehigh on March 4 and March 5, are the playoffs for the wrestlers: the past is behind them, and they must now focus on the future.

The EIWAs will be split up into three sessions. The first session will take place Saturday March 4 at 10 a.m. Session 2 will start at the same time the following day, and will include the consolation semifinals and place finals. The final session, the championship round, will start at 3 p.m.

There is no doubt that the competition will be steep for the Tigers. Though senior co-captain Matt DeNichilo and junior Eric Marcotulli are healthy and ready to wrestle hard, the draw in each weight class is filled with nationally-ranked wrestlers who have some ideas of their own.

At 141 pounds, Marcotulli will be up against wrestlers like Lehigh's Cory Cooperman, who is ranked No. 1 in the conference. Cooperman will be joined by Steve Adamcsik of Rutgers, whose wrestling as of late has basically been flawless. And it's not a good sign for Princeton when Adamcsik, who has won his last eighteen bouts, is only ranked third in his weight class.

Things won't get any easier in the other weight classes either: 157-pound senior Matt Piselli will be challenged by Cornell's three-time All-American Dustin Manotti, while 165-pound sophomore Marty Everin will have to cope with Lehigh's Troy Letters. Letters, a three-time Eastern champion, is looking to make it four.

Freshman Gordon Scharf joins the list of Tiger underdogs at 184 pounds, where he will be in the presence of American University's Josh Glenn, who leads the EIWA in pins and is ranked by many as the top wrestler in the nation.

"I'll just approach it as I have my four other varsity matches: a great opportunity to gain experience and confidence," Scharf said. "I don't expect to win against wrestlers with three years of varsity experience, but I'm going to be tough out there and give them a match."

Princeton's hopes in the next weight class all go back to one unfortunate story. Cornell's Jerry Rinaldi is the top seed at 197 pounds, where an injured Jake Butler would undoubtedly be a championship contender in any other circumstances.

"It is still a possibility for Butler to wrestle at Easterns, but that is not the operating assumption," Scharf said. "We would all love to see him come back, but we have to prepare in case he can't wrestle."

To that end, sophomore Logan Lowe is expected to wrestle in Butler's place in Bethlehem, Pa. this Saturday.

At 174 pounds, DeNichilo will face yet another top-seeded Lehigh wrestler in Travis Frick. But with Butler gone, the team will be looking to DeNichilo for some gutsy performances. And if anyone is expected to pull off an upset for the Tigers at this point, it's him.

"Matt DeNichilo will probably have the most success out of the team that we're starting this weekend," Scharf said.

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Whatever the weight class may be, the Tigers will almost always be amongst wrestlers with near-perfect season records. But this is the playoffs, and in the playoffs nothing done during the season matters. Upsets will be forced. Dark horses will emerge. And for Princeton, as well as any other team at this point, the motto is "go big or go home."