Head wrestling coach Chris Ayres has a vision. But sometimes, dreams fall flat.
On Nov. 30, 2018 on the road, the unranked underdogs of Princeton wrestling took down a powerhouse: the no. 8 Mountain Hawks. Since then, one question has plagued the Tigers, their fans, and their adversaries: could Princeton do it again? Answer: yes.
Last year, No. 11 Princeton wrestling pulled off what head coach Christopher Ayres called “the greatest collegiate athletic turnaround of all time.” The team had spent the year urging their fans to #GetIn: to buy into their program, to hop on board before the bandwagon did. Now Princeton wrestling is back, and the Tigers aren’t satisfied. Getting in isn’t enough. They want to burn the ships.
“I’ve gone through hell to get to this moment,” said head wrestling coach Christopher Ayres. “I’m getting chills. I mean, this is surreal. This is a dream come true. This is – I think – the greatest turnaround college athletics has ever seen.”
A historic day for Princeton wrestling ended on a bitter note. Patrick Glory, Patrick Brucki, and Matthew Kolodzik secured All-American status but fell into the consolation bracket.
As the first day of the NCAA tournament progressed, the stratification of Princeton’s team became more pronounced. For only the second time in program history, the Tigers ended the day with three wrestlers in the quarterfinals. Monday, Stefanik, and Parker were not so lucky. Their seasons — and their dreams of All-American status — ended with the day.
Two weeks ago, six Princeton wrestlers qualified for the NCAA tournament. On Thursday at noon in the Pittsburgh PPG Arena, each of them will begin his three-day quest for glory.
After a third-place finish at the EIWA championships, including individual wins for Patrick Brucki and Patrick Glory, Princeton wrestling will send six wrestlers to Pittsburgh for the NCAA championships next week
An inside look at Princeton wrestlers’ “weight management” techniques.
No. 3 Matthew Kolodzik lost in an upset to unranked Parker Kropman, but Princeton wrestling earned a convincing win over Drexel in its last match before its conference tournament.
In Philadelphia on Saturday, Princeton wrestling (8–6 overall, 4–1 Ivy) claimed the title of Ivy League runners-up and clinched its first four-match win streak over the University of Pennsylvania (5–8, 2–3) since 1988.
Princeton wrestling traveled to Ithaca, New York, last weekend with one goal in mind: to put an end to No. 10 Cornell’s (10–2 overall, 5–0 Ivy) 16-year reign over the Ivy League.
After a two-week break from competition, wrestling (6–5, 2–0 Ivy) began its busy weekend with dominating victories against Harvard University (1–7, 1–5 EIWA) and Brown University (4–6, 2–5 EIWA). But in a battle for the unofficial New Jersey state wrestling title, the team fared worse, falling to Rutgers University (9–5, 2–3 Big 10) by just one point.
Princeton wrestling had never produced a champion at the Chicago-based Ken Kraft Midlands Championships. They left this year’s tournament with two. The Princeton squad powered through Midlands’ stiff competition to finish in a program-best fifth place.
Wrestler Matthew Kolodzik has had his sights set on winning it all since he has come to campus. Now entering his junior year, everyone around him thinks this is the year he finally breaks through. From workouts to study sessions, Kolodzik and his teammates give us an inside look into what winning a national championship takes.
Over the weekend, Princeton wrestling traveled to New England for meets against Harvard and Brown. The Tigers split the doubleheader, defeating Harvard 21-17 but falling 17-15 to Brown.
This past Sunday, the Princeton wrestling team continued its stretch against some of the top teams in the country when it traveled to New York City to take on No. 10 Virginia Tech in Madison Square Garden. The game represented the opening match at the Grapple at the Garden. Unfortunately, the unranked Tigers came out on the losing side of this match, defeated by a score of 26-12.
Ivy and EIWA Coach of the Year Chris Ayres wanted to bring the Princeton wrestling program into national prominence. Speaking about the gradual, often painstaking rise of the Tigers as serious national contenders, Ayres noted, “Our program has come a long, long way in the past 10 years, with a lot of people sacrificing to elevate it to this point.”
Coming off a monumental season last year, the Princeton wrestling team set high expectations for its performance this season.
Freshman standout Matthew Kolodzik became the second Midlands Tournament finalist ever for the Princeton wrestling program, improving on his fifth-place performance from last year, when he wrestled as an unattached competitor while deferring admission to the University. This was the biggest Midlands tournament yet, and the talented but young Tigers found themselves wrestling with some of the nation’s best programs and most decorated competitors.
