After wrapping up its most successful season in 23 years and beginning a new season with one of its strongest recruiting classes ever, the wrestling team will compete in the Keystone Open in Philadelphia on Sunday with 11 other teams and more than 200 competitors.
The tournament will be significantly tougher than it has been in past years with this season's invitation of top teams from the Big Ten. While the tournament will feature familiar teams like Penn, Brown and Rider, powerhouses like No. 15 Northwestern and Edinboro will also compete.
“There was a lot more quantity last weekend, and this weekend there’s going to be a lot more quality,” head coach Chris Ayres explained, invoking last weekend's Bearcat Open in Binghamton, N.Y.
“It’s an interesting situation in that we have the smallest roster in the Ivy League," Ayres said of this weekend's challenge. "It's kind of a unique thing where the No. 1 team in the country, Cornell, has more than twice as many guys on their roster."
Fortunately for the Tigers, the Class of 2014, similar to last year's freshman class, is already starting to stand out. Last weekend, two of the three wrestlers who placed were freshmen Adam Krop and Ryan Callahan.
“It’s going to be a really young team again," Ayres noted. "I think last year eight of the 10 weights were freshmen and sophomores. This year will be similar just because we have these really good freshmen. We’re young again, but with the youth there’s a little bit of inexperience, but they're doing great so far."
“From this weekend to Keystone we’re going to be better," he predicted. "We’re really changing things to make sure our guys are successful ... Overall the freshmen have exceeded our expectations. We knew they were a good recruiting class."
The Tigers will also rely heavily on sophomore Garrett Frey, who last year reached the finals of the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association championship and won a match at the NCAA tournament last year.
“Our conference is the third toughest conference in the country. It’s Big Ten, maybe Big 12, and then EIWA,” Ayres said, emphasizing the impressive nature of Frey's accomplishment.
However, the Tigers will need to focus on the short-term task ahead of them in order to continue the hot start to their season. The tournament kicks off at 9 a.m. on Sunday.
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