Wrestling: Forfeits plague Tigers out West

“Some guys wrestled pretty tough,” head coach Chris Ayres said. “We progressively got better as the day went on. But with the long layoff, we weren’t fully ready to compete that first match, and that’s something I’ve got to remember for next year.”

The Tigers’ best performances came from 157-pound senior captain Marty Everin and 149-pound freshman Daniel Kolodzik. Everin picked up a 9-2 decision over Portland State’s Alex Bubb and an 11-3 major decision over Oregon State’s Cody Weishoff. He dropped his last match 4-3 against Stanford’s Lucas Espericueta.

“Even though he dropped his last match, Marty’s getting consistent in his performances,” Ayres explained. “There’s not too much variance from one performance to the next. He just fell short there. He’s a couple points away from beating the best guys in the country, so we really have to work this next month essentially to gain those couple points. You got to close that couple-point gap if you’re going to make nationals because he’s in a really tough weight class.”

Kolodzik, who had previously been wrestling in the 141-pound weight class, also earned two victories. Both were major decisions, the first over Portland State’s Steven Dailey 12-3 and the second over Stanford’s Max Rosefigura 14-4.

“Daniel wrestled really well,” Ayres said. “At 149 we’re still uncertain who’s going to start since Daniel’s moved up ... Daniel did a really good job. He did what he’s supposed to do, and that’s the consistency we’re looking for as a team. He goes out there and did what he can do and got the job done.”

Junior 165-pounder Mike Alvarez and freshman 184-pounder Kurt Brendel also picked up victories for the Tigers. Alvarez finished 1-1 on the day, defeating Stanford’s Victor Haug 5-3 before dropping a 19-8 major decision to Oregon State’s Keegan Davis. Brendel finished 1-2, with his lone victory a 5-1 result over Portland State’s Tony Contreras. The rookie lost to Oregon State’s Brice Arand 20-1 and fell to Stanford’s Jake Johnson 4-1.

Junior 149-pounder Danny Scotton dropped his lone match, pinned in two minutes, 55 seconds by Oregon State’s No. 16 Heinrich Barnes. Sophomore 174-pounder Travis Erdman and freshman heavyweight Stephen Turner dropped two decisions apiece. Erdman fell 12-4 to Oregon State’s No. 11 Kyle Bressler and lost 5-1 to Portland State’s Ryan Sonderegger. Turner was pinned by Oregon State’s Clayton Jack in 1:47 and fell 12-4 to Portland State’s Nick Gale. Junior 125-pounder Robert Benitez lost all three of his matches, including a tightly contested 8-7 bout against Portland State’s Kevin Martinez.

The Tigers were plagued by forfeits during the trip, as they did not send a wrestler to the mat at 133 or 141 pounds in any of the three matches. This will make winning dual meets difficult for the remainder of the season.

“It looks like we’re going to be forfeiting those weights for the rest of the year,” Ayres said. “The lack of depth is killing us … If somebody gets hurt, we’re going to have issues. That’s the uphill struggle with this program: It’s just numbers right now. We probably would have beat Portland State, and who knows how the other matches would’ve gone. It’s hard to start matches by the amount of points that we’re down and to try to turn things around. [I]t’d be like starting a football game down 21-0.”

Princeton has only seven matches remaining before the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA) Championships. The Tigers wrestle at home against Harvard and Brown this Saturday, starting a string of four consecutive league matches.

The focus, however, will not be on getting results in dual meets. Instead, Ayres and the Tigers will make sure each individual wrestler is ready for the EIWA tournament. The ultimate goal is to get wrestlers to the NCAA tournament in St. Louis.

“Wrestling is kind of unique in that if you focus on the individuals, the other results take care of themselves like dual meets and whatnot,” Ayres said. “So even if we had a full team, the real driving force is getting individuals to attain the goals that they set out for themselves, and if you’re able to do that, you have a good team. Even if we were a great team, each individual guy getting what he needed to get to the next level would be the focus. In our situation it just becomes more apparent because it’s really hard to win the duals.”