Short-handed grapplers finish 15th at Midlands Championships

The wrestling team (4-3, 1-2 Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association) kept busy over winter break, competing out of state on three separate occasions as a prelude to the heart of its conference schedule.

After falling to Binghamton at home on Dec. 12 in a 20-16 heartbreaker, the Tigers trained on campus until Dec. 21, when they took the brief bus ride to Madison Square Garden to compete at the 2014 Grapple at the Garden. Head coach Chris Ayres’ squad split its matches against No. 18 Lehigh and Army. The Tigers fell to Lehigh in their first match by a 23-10 margin, as the Mountainhawks took the first three individual bouts to build an 11-0 lead that ultimately proved insurmountable. Senior 149-pounder Adam Krop, ranked No. 19 in the nation, posted a strong 13-3 major decision over Lehigh’s William Switzer to put the Tigers on the board, and freshman 165-pounder Jonathan Schleifer posted a strong 5-2 decision over Santiago Martinez. The Tigers’ third and final win of the 10 individual bouts came from junior Abram Ayala, as the No. 10 197-pounder in the nation gritted out a 5-4 decision in a tiebreaker against No. 15 Elliot Riddick.

The Tigers rebounded in their second match of the day, as the Tigers once again fell behind early as the Black Knights took a 13-6 lead through the first five bouts. Another win from Schleifer started the Tigers’ rally, as Princeton narrowed the deficit with consecutive wins from sophomore 184-pounder Brett Harner and Ayala. Down by one team point going into the final bout, the Tigers capped the comeback on the shoulders of sophomore heavyweight Ray O’Donnell, as the Pennsylvania native took down Mason Kumashiro in a 7-0 decision to give the Tigers the 19-17 victory.

After a few days off, the Tigers returned to the mat with their second trip of the month to Evanston, Ill., for the 52nd Midlands Championships. With a couple of starters scratched from the lineup, the Tigers still put up a strong performance in the Midwest, as freshman 157-pounder Francesco Fabozzi, Schleifer, Harner and Ayala all made it to the second day of competition. While Fabozzi and Schleifer both came one match short of placing, Harner would end up placing eighth and Ayala fifth in one of the toughest collegiate tournaments in the nation. The Tigers’ overall performance was good for 15th out of the 60 teams that competed.

“I think Midlands was a better performance by our team,” junior 157-pounder Chris Perez said. “We only had seven weight classes filled and were still able to place top fifteen out of sixty team. We had some big moments for our team as well. Francesco Fabozzi had a good tournament, and Abe Ayala avenged an offseason loss.”

“Midlands is tough, there’s no doubt about that,” Harner said. “Overall we wrestled pretty well, but I know everyone had hoped to do better than our results show. It’s definitely an improvement on last year, having four of us moving to the second day as opposed to just one last year. Midlands is a good checkpoint. It really puts things in perspective and lets us know where we stand amongst some of the best guys in the nation. That being said, we need to get better.”

The Tigers, who did not travel to the Midlands, competed at Franklin & Marshall College on Saturday at the 2015 F&M Open, with three wrestlers going all the way to the finals. Senior 157-pounder Rich Eva, plagued by injuries throughout 2014, had an electrifying start to the new year. A sudden victory win in his opening match and a pair of first-period falls helped power Eva to the final, where he fell in a close 7-4 decision to Notre Dame’s Jonaton Rivera. Junior 184-pounder Scott Gibbons and freshman 197-pounder Ian Baker also found their way to the finals of their respective weight classes, but fell by respective scores of 12-2 and 9-5.

The Tigers return to competition on Friday, when they host Sacred Heart University and Hofstra University in Dillon Gymnasium for a pair of back-to-back matches. Match time is set for 5 p.m. against Sacred Heart and 7 p.m. against Hofstra.