Coming off a season that saw it post its first victories in more than two years, the wrestling team will look to continue its progress in the 2009-10 campaign. The Tigers return a few key upperclassmen and welcome an extremely talented freshman class.
The Tigers now have 20 men on their roster, five more than a season ago. Forfeits have plagued Princeton over the last few years, often effectively eliminating it from dual meets before the bouts even began. This should not be as much of an issue going forward, as the Tigers are at least two wrestlers deep at nearly every weight class.
Now in his fourth year as head coach of the program, Chris Ayres has no doubts about his goals this season.
“We need to get some guys to the NCAA tournament,” Ayres said. “That’s the primary goal.”
Ayres also noted that he looks forward to continued success in dual meets. The Tigers won two dual meets last season.
“Definitely we’re going to be strong dual meet-wise,” Ayres said. “I’d like to see some more dual-meet wins.”
The team will be characterized by its youth. Princeton only has four upperclassmen on its roster, and underclassmen could end up with the majority of the starting roles.
“I think we’ll start four to five freshmen and three, maybe even four, sophomores. It’s one of these situations where we’re going to be ridiculously young, but the good news is that they’re all pretty good, and we’ll have a full lineup. We’re going to be young, but we’re going to be a lot better than we were last year.”
Senior 157-pounder Mike Alvarez has assumed the role of team leader, following in the footsteps of graduated 157-pounder Marty Everin.
“We were both freshmen at the same time essentially,” Ayres said. “My first year was his first year. We’ve kind of been through this together. He’s really had a four-year stint with us and shown a lot of progress through the years. He’s taken on a major leadership role within our program.”
Alvarez, senior 149-pounder Danny Scotton and junior 165-pounder Travis Erdman are the three primary upperclassman leaders on the team.
“Travis Erdman has stepped it up a bit in terms of leadership role,” Ayres said. “He’s kind of been a little quiet in terms of leadership in the past, but I think he’s stepping it up, especially with his actions. He’s not really a guy to run around to tell guys what to do, but he has a maturity in him. He’s a leader by example.”
“Kurt Brendel has also stepped up,” Ayres added. “He’s only a sophomore, but he’s being a pretty good leader by example, too.”
The freshmen comprise what is undoubtedly Ayres’ best recruiting class to date. Headlined by 125-pounder Garrett Frey, who reached the national prep final twice in high school, Princeton’s freshman wrestlers have the potential to make the Tigers a real threat in the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association.
“They’re turning out to be really good so far, not just in terms of being good wrestlers,” Ayres said. “They’re excited, and they’re working their tails off, and they want good things to happen for themselves and the program,” Ayres said.
So far, Frey has been as good as advertised: He has appeared in two tournaments and won them both.
“He came in, and he’s got the best record on the team as a true freshman,” Ayres said. “That’s pretty darn exciting. He’s a real hard worker, too.”
Freshman Zach Bintliff, in the 133-pound weight class, has also been impressive so far, though he has shown that there are things he could improve upon.
“He was in the matches,” Ayres said. “He probably should have won some of them, but he just [made] some rookie mistakes. He’s got to mature competitively a little bit. He’s a super hard worker and a state champ, so he is darn good.”
Freshman 141-pounder Luis Ramos and freshman 197-pounder Charles Fox have shown similar promise, but Ayres said they still have strides to make in transitioning to collegiate competition.
“Ramos and Fox have shown the most improvement since they got here … They have to take some pretty big steps, but they’ve shown to be very good competitors. The matches they lost were close, they were very winnable, and those close matches, they’d definitely turn those around in another month.”
Freshman Bobby Grogan, in the 197-pound weight class, will likely transition to the heavyweight class in the coming weeks. And the team’s last two rookies, 157-pounder Jason Ott and heavyweight Greg Field, have been injured.
“Overall, [the freshmen have] improved so much since they first set foot on campus, and if they can keep improving at this rate, they’re gonna be doing pretty darn good by the end of the season,” Ayres said.
The outlook for the season remains uncertain. The team definitely has the talent and depth to be a significant cut above the teams of years past. It will be up to the freshmen and sophomores, who could end up occupying all but two of the starting spots, to ensure that the team wrestles to its ability.
“It’s coming around for us,” Ayres said. “It’s hard to tell where we’ll be just because we’re counting on young guys. It really depends on their rate of improvement throughout the year, just because they’ll probably cover almost half our weight classes. It’s going to be an exciting year. I know we’re going to be a lot better than last year, but just how good we can be I’m not really sure.”
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