Freshman Comunale notches first place at tourney

With the bitter taste of last year cleansed by the start of a new season, the Princeton wrestling team took its first step towards redemption this past Sunday with a successful showing against The College of New Jersey. While action was limited to freshmen and sophomores, the Tigers' young guns showed their grit as the team notched more individual victories in the tournament than they did all of last year.

Freshman 125-pounder Tony Comunale finished first in the tournament. Communale wrestled his way to three consecutive victories en route to the title, including a hard-fought victory in the finals. Comunale was the first wrestler head coach Chris Ayres had coached to a first-place tournament finish, making the victory all the more special.

Freshman Travis Erdman, who wrestles at 165-pounds, placed second in his bracket after losing a tight match in the finals, while sophomore 157-pounder Mike Alvarez and freshman 149-pounder Justin Spain each posted 3-1 records on their way to third-place finishes.

Freshmen Anthony Salerno and Matt Katz, wrestling at 184 pounds and 149 pounds respectively, both notched 2-2 records and placed fourth in their brackets.

That all five of the new freshmen on the team placed put an exclamation mark on an already exciting tournament.

"Overall, I was very pleased with their performance. They are setting the tone for what the program will be like in the future," Ayres said in an email.

Senior captain John Clore, who watched the meet, shared similar sentiments.

"The freshmen did a great job. It's always tough to step out on the mat for the first time in a season, and even more so when it's your first match at a new level of competition," Clore said in an email. "These guys handled it very well. I think we have every reason to be hopeful for the future of this season and the next four years."

Though the sophomores didn't earn the hard results the freshmen did, they still played better than they did last year.

"We had three sophomores, and I think they set a great tone. Mike Alvarez did a great job coming back to place third, and even though Nicky Pereira and Jeff Kirchick didn't place, I was very happy with their improvement from last year. They showed a lot of fight in their matches," Ayres said.

As for the other highlights of the tournament, the Tigers showed the beginnings of a renewed sense of confidence following last season's disappointing record.

"The team was much more confident, and I feel every wrestler stepped on the mat believing they should win. This was not the case last year," Ayres said.

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Clore sees this dynamic carrying into the season.

"I think there is generally more positive momentum in the room, and that tends to translate to confidence on the mat. With the training and competition that has gone on even inside the team, we have every reason to expect our work will translate into wins," Clore said.

Princeton will play on the road for the next four weekends. The stretch will surely be grueling, but if Sunday's tournament was any indicator, the Orange and Black will be ready. The Tigers never had the momentum they have now at any point last season, and it will be exciting to see how they take advantage of their exciting start. Ayres was quite optimistic following the meet.

"I think the team definitely started off things on a positive note considering we had more individual wins in this tournament then we did all of last year. Last year, I talked a lot about someone 'breaking through' and becoming a competitive leader, and I think several people did that at the tournament," Ayres said.

If Princeton's competitive leaders can keep their performances up, and if the team as a whole maintains its newly found confidence, the Tigers will soon have us all forgetting about last season.