Senior 157-pounder and captain Marty Everin was the only member of the Class of 2009 to start for Princeton on its senior night, and he put on quite a show. Everin captured two major decisions, bringing his team-leading win total on the season to 16.
In his first match, Everin took on Carlo Ferrandino of BU. Everin controlled the match, winning 10-2. He did the same against Sacred Heart’s Austin Alpaugh, cruising to a 9-0 victory.
“He’s on a roll right now, and hopefully we’ll keep that going,” head coach Chris Ayres said.
Freshman 184-pounder Kurt Brendel also put an exclamation mark on an excellent freshman campaign with two victories of his own. Brendel knocked off BU’s Carmen Rondash 6-2 before defeating Sacred Heart’s Brandon Lapp 4-1.
Junior 125-pounder Robert Benitez, freshman 149-pounder Daniel Kolodzik and sophomore 174-pounder Travis Erdman also picked up individual wins for Princeton.
After losing a close 7-5 decision to BU’s Ryan Dowd, Benitez pinned Sacred Heart’s Mike Impellizeri in six minutes, 11 seconds. It was Benitez’ first pin of the season.
“It was pretty exciting,” Ayres said of Benitez’ pin. “He got us off to a good start [against Sacred Heart]. I wasn’t sure if we could win the dual, and then I was like ‘Yeah, we can win this dual!’ ”
Like Benitez, Kolodzik and Erdman recovered from early setbacks. After being pinned in 3:40 by BU’s Michael Roberts, Kolodzik defeated Sacred Heart’s Anthony Priore 7-3. Erdman fell 10-4 to BU’s Hunter Meys before defeating Sacred Heart’s Jonathon Rizzitello 9-4.
Junior 157-pounder Mike Alvarez suffered a pair of heartbreaking losses. The junior 165-pounder fell 6-5 to BU’s Charles Inglin and 7-5 to Sacred Heart’s Mike Hartman.
Junior 197-pounder Zachary Morse was pinned twice. His first loss came against BU’s John Hall in 3:47, and his second came against Sacred Heart’s Rick Eichenlaub in 5:40. Freshman heavyweight Stephen Turner also lost twice, falling to BU’s James Connors 14-4 and Sacred Heart’s William Beiermeister 10-3.
The Tigers now have two weeks to prepare for the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA) Championships, which will be held in Philadelphia at the Palestra gymnasium on the Penn campus.
Princeton’s biggest hope is Everin, whose season-long goal has been to win an EIWA title and qualify for the NCAA Championships in St Louis, Mo., in March. Unfortunately for Everin, the 157-pound bracket he competes in is the strongest in the EIWA and includes four wrestlers ranked in the top 12 nationally.
Cornell’s Jordan Leen is the reigning NCAA champion and is currently ranked No. 3, Harvard’s J.P. O’Connor is No. 5, Penn’s Matt Dragon is No. 9 and Rutgers’ Scott Winston is No. 12. The top five wrestlers qualify for the NCAA Championships.
Everin has faced all four over the course of the season, losing tight battles against O’Connor, Dragon and Winston. He was blown out in his one match against Leen this season, but he did keep up with Leen when the two met last season.
“If Marty does what he’s capable of doing, he’ll be fine,” Ayres said. “And it looks like he’s going to do that. He wrestled great today. I think he’s going to do it.”
The rest of the team won’t have it much easier. Kolodzik and junior 149-pounder Danny Scotton will join No. 7 Matt Kyler of Army, No. 8 Bryce Saddoris of Navy, No. 11 Trevor Chinn of Lehigh, No. 12 Cesar Grajales of Penn and No. 13 Kyle Borschoff of American in their bracket.
In the 184-pound bracket, Brendel is in the mix with three ranked wrestlers: No. 7 Louis Caputo of Harvard, No. 9 David Craig of Lehigh and No. 15 Justin Kerber of Cornell.
Even the unranked wrestlers will be hard to defeat, as the EIWA is considered the third -strongest conference in the nation behind only the Big 10 and Big 12.
Sophomore 125-pounder Tony Comunale came close to qualifying for the NCAA tournament last year, but he finished sixth after injuring his ankle in a match that would have cemented his spot in the tournament. The Tigers will be looking to avenge Comunale’s loss. With the right attitude, they might just be able to do it.
“If guys start to believe in themselves and do what they’re capable of, good things will happen,” Ayres said.
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