Wrestling: Freshman Frey finishes in second at Keystone Classic on Sunday

Freshman wrestler Garrett Frey followed his first-place finish at the Binghamton Open last weekend with another impressive performance at the Keystone Classic on Sunday. Frey took second in the 125-pound bracket, losing to Jasen Borshoff of American, 5-3, in the final. The tournament was hosted by Ivy rival Penn and held at the Palestra.

Head coach Chris Ayres attributed Frey’s early season success to his relentlessness on the mat.

“Garrett goes out, and he wrestles hard the whole time,” Ayres said. “I don’t think he’s happy with just winning. I think he wants to put tons of points on the board, and as a result of that, he goes out there, and he tries a lot of different things. Some of our guys can learn a great lesson from a freshman. Some of them are going out and trying to be as conservative as possible, just trying to get a win.”

Unlike at the Binghamton tournament, in which Frey was Princeton’s only placer, the Tigers had five wrestlers place in the Keystone Classic by finishing in the top six in their respective weight classes.

In the 157-pound weight class, senior tri-captain Danny Scotton fought through the consolation bracket to earn fifth place, notching a 3-1 overtime win over the Virginia Military Institute’s Matthew Brock.

Scotton earned one point in regulation for an escape at the end of the second period, but before the escape, Brock controlled Scotton for long enough to earn a time-advantage point. Tied at one, the match entered sudden-death overtime. Scotton said knew he had to start attacking more aggressively.

“[In regulation,] I tried to pick and choose my shots so I wouldn’t be put in a vulnerable situation. In overtime, I opened things up and got the winning takedown,” Scotton said.

At 165 pounds, sophomore Andy Lowy beat American’s Tanner Shaffer, 6-5, for fifth place. Freshman Charles Fox took sixth at 197 pounds, and sophomore 184-pounder Kurt Brendel earned fourth.

Brendel’s second-round upset of second-seed John Hall of Boston University may have been Princeton’s most exciting victory of the day.

“Kurt followed the game plan,” Ayres explained. “We told him that in order to win he had to wear the guy out … We told him, ‘Don’t worry if you get behind. You can break this kid.’ ”

Brendel fell behind in the first period, but he relied on his strength and superior conditioning to run Hall ragged. After finally breaking Hall, Brendel clawed his way back to an 11-10 victory.

“Kurt had the composure to come back and make sure he got the victory. It was a great bout,” Ayres said. “In the past, we haven’t been great at finding ways to win bouts, especially when we’re behind … But it happened a lot this weekend.”

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The wrestling team now has almost two weeks to prepare for its first dual matches of the season against Franklin and Marshall, VMI and Rutgers on Dec. 4 and 5, which will be held at home at Dillon Gymnasium.

In addition to Scotton’s win over Brock, Brendel and junior 165-pounder Travis Erdman also earned victories over VMI wrestlers. This, plus the fact that one of Princeton’s two dual-match victories last year came against Franklin and Marshall, means that the Tigers could very well meet, or even surpass, their win total from last year in the first weekend of duals.

Ayres spoke positively of his team’s rapid progress.

“I like where the team has progressed to,” he said. “If we were to enter this tournament two years ago, or even last year, I think we wouldn’t have had half as many placers as we did this year. While I think we could have had more guys place, it’s pretty good for right now. And we are moving in the right direction.”