Wrestling: Grapplers enter season with dedicated squad

In a 2010-11 school year that featured a record-setting 15 Ivy League championships awarded to the Princeton Tigers, one would think it difficult to find room for improvement. However, the wrestling team thinks differently.

After finishing in a three-way tie for last in the Ivy League standings a year ago, the Tigers (4-13 overall, 1-4 Ivy League in 2010-11) look to a more dedicated squad to bring success this year.

Chris Ayres, who enters his sixth season as head coach, has had the team hitting the mats hard since the day they arrived on campus. Over Fall Break, while others were sleeping all day long, the Tigers descended into the recesses of Jadwin Gymnasium for brutal practices twice each day. Add in the team’s tournament simulation on Saturday, for which each wrestler had to cut to his respective weight, and it made for a week of shedding pounds and intensity.

“It was definitely good to get the feeling of meaningful matches before our first competitions so our first tournament isn’t a shock,” said sophomore Seth Hazleton, who wrestles at 149 pounds.

Hazleton also noted that the level of commitment from each individual and the team as a whole has taken a positive step from last year.

“Last year we weren’t connected as a team that well. It didn’t seem like there was as much passion in doing well as there is this year,” Hazleton said.

That passion has seemed to link the team together this year. As Hazleton said, “We are so much more focused and energized this year. The team is coming together more. We have goals, and we want to go out and get them.”

First among the team’s goals this year is to beat Penn, who has beaten the Tigers every year since the wrestling team made its comeback in 1997 after several dormant years. With a win against Penn, who begins the year ranked nationally, Princeton would prove to itself and to the world of wrestling that they have arrived at the next level. The Quakers visit Dillon Gymnasium on Saturday, Feb. 18 for the Tigers’ final day of the regular season.

Leading this year’s squad is junior co-captain Garrett Frey. Frey, who wrestles at 125 pounds, won a team-leading 27 matches and earned All-Ivy honorable mention last season. After qualifying for the NCAA tournament both his freshman and sophomore seasons, Frey has the potential to come home from this year’s NCAA tournament as an All-American. But the team refuses to let Frey make the trip to St. Louis (the site of the 2012 NCAA Wrestling Championships) alone.

In order to achieve this goal, Princeton must bring no less than its best to Jadwin Gymnasium on March 3–4 for the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association championships. The EIWA for Princeton wrestling is equivalent to a conference on steroids for any other sport in the Ivy League. The conference boasts many nationally-ranked powers including #6 Cornell, #5 Lehigh, #12 American, #15 Rutgers and #23 Penn. Tiger grapplers will need a good showing in the Championships in order to earn the trip to St. Louis.

On a team that returns nine of 10 starters, experience will play an important role. Along with Frey, co-captain and senior 157-pounder Daniel Kolodzik, junior 149-pounder Zack Bintliff and sophomores Adam Kropp (141 pounds) and Dan Santoro (184 pounds) all have the potential to place well at EIWAs and qualify for the NCAA tournament.

Kolodzik placed sixth at EIWAs last year, and Santoro is coming off a win this past weekend at the Clarion Open.

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Princeton opens up its season as a team this weekend at the Binghamton Open on Sunday. The schedule is loaded with challenges, but Princeton embraces them this year with new tenacity. Big Ten power Wisconsin will provide a tough test as the Tigers’ first dual-meet opponent. That match will take place at Lawrenceville on Friday, Nov. 18. The Tigers will wrestle Binghamton in their first home dual meet on Dec. 3 during the first of six home weekends.