Everin third, Comunale fourth at East Stroudsburg

After winning more bouts in its first match than it did all season, the Princeton wrestling team further redeemed itself with its second successful showing in as many weeks at the East Stroudsburg Open. Junior 157-pounder Marty Everin and freshman 125-pounder Tony Comunale led the way, placing third and fourth, respectively.

Wrestling unattached, Everin defeated opponents from touted programs such as Lehigh, Virginia and Penn State. In the semifinals, he was pitted against eventual champion Derek Sickles of Columbia; though he was unable get past Sickles, Everin kept his calm and knocked off Duke's Voris Tejada for a 3-1 victory in the third-place match.

Comunale took advantage of a bye and three victories to land himself in the semifinals, but he finally found his match in Clarion's Jay Ivanco and Duke's Kellan McKeon. Two consecutive losses ended the day for Comunale, who finished fourth. With regards to his success in his first season, Comunale gives most of the credit to his coaches.

"The transition from high school has been huge," Comunale said. "It's a different style of wrestling, and I've been trying to learn all that I can. Practice has been a battle every day to learn as much as possible from each of the coaches — they have a lot to offer me, and I still feel that I have a lot to learn from them."

Comunale already has plans for establishing a winning trend this season.

"You can never be in perfect shape, but I think I'm also going to focus on technique and endurance. It's all about getting the collegiate style down," Comunale said.

Head coach Chris Ayres was pleased with the tournaments results, citing in particular the performance of 165-pound junior Alex Enriquez.

"I was overall happy with the way the guys competed, and some of them are having breakthroughs," Ayres said. "Enriquez did a great job of wrestling complete matches and proving that he can compete with the best guys in the country. He had a little bit of a breakthrough."

The tournament was the first action of the year for juniors and seniors, and Ayres saw significant improvement from last year, even in matches that they lost.

"The veteran guys are doing a lot of right things. A lot of what we teach is translating to matches," Ayres said.

One of the keys to this season's success has been a change in the team's practices.

"Last year we spent a lot of time on the big picture and fundamentals. Now we're at a point when we can focus on individual differences and little things that make guys better," Ayres said.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

While Everin and Comunale were the Tigers' top two finishers, 10 other Princeton wrestlers competed in the tournament. Sophomore 133-pounder Nikhil Pereira went 1-1 after losing his first match. Fellow sophomore 141-pounder Jeff Kirchick was unfortunately paired with the eventual champion in his first match and ended up dropping both of his decisions. Freshman 149-pounder Justin Spain notched one win in three bouts, while classmate Matt Katz suffered two losses on the day.

Enriquez managed a 2-1 record against some very difficult opponents, while fellow 165-pounders senior captain Johnny Clore, freshman Travis Erdman, and sophomore Mike Alvarez dropped tight first-round decisions.

As for the heavyweights, 185-pound freshman Anthony Salerno lost his first match, but senior 285-pounder Sam Ritter split his two matches on the day.

While Princeton's success this season has been quite exciting, the team is far from complacent.

"I think people are motivated and encouraged by getting wins under their belts, but I don't think anyone is fooling themselves into thinking we are already where we need to be in March," Clore said in an email.

It seems apparent that the wrestlers have a good idea of what needs to be done to win this season; continued success will simply be a matter of hard work in practice and execution in matches. Following a well-deserved break for Thanksgiving, the Tigers' next test comes at the Nittany Lion Open on Dec. 2.