Wrestling: Sophomore phenom Krop injures ACL in season-ending doubleheader

Princeton left Lehigh with some more bad news than just the loss, however. Sophomore and All-America hopeful Adam Krop tore his ACL during a scramble in his match at 141 pounds against Lehigh. Krop is scheduled for an MRI on Monday, and he said he will talk with his doctors, parents and coaches before making the decision if he will wrestle in two weeks in an attempt to qualify for the NCAA Tournament.

It was a highly anticipated weekend for Princeton, which had made beating Penn for the first time in decades a team goal at the onset of this season. Add to this suspense that Saturday was “Senior Day” at Dillon and the fact that head coach Chris Ayres, a 1998 graduate of Lehigh and a former star of the Mountain Hawks’ wrestling program, would return to Bethlehem for Lehigh’s own “Senior Night,” and Saturday became one special day for the Tigers.

But no one had to tell Krop that Saturday was a big day.

“It was almost like I was getting a pre-match before the NCAAs,” Krop said of the challenges that awaited him this past weekend. Krop, who is ranked 15th nationally, faced Penn’s No. 13 Zack Kemmerer and Lehigh’s No. 19 Steve Dutton, who qualified for the NCAA Tournament in 2011.

After freshman 125-pounder Ryan Cash earned a big 6-2 victory in the absence of junior Garrett Frey, who was expected to wrestle but woke up Saturday morning with gastroenteritis, and Penn took a major decision at 133 pounds, Krop and Kemmerer took center stage at Dillon.

The two All-America hopefuls wrestled a defensive match full of exciting scrambles. With time running down in the third period, the score was tied 1-1, but since Krop had over a minute of riding time, Kemmerer needed a score to avoid the loss. Kemmerer scored the takedown he needed with 30 seconds left to win 3-1.

Krop, disappointed but not distraught, said he wishes he had wrestled more aggressively in that final period instead of just trying to avoid the pivotal takedown. “I think when I got cautious, I stopped wrestling at my best,” he said.

Kemmerer’s win was pivotal for the Quakers. Despite impressive wins from seniors Daniel Kolodzik and Andy Lowy at 157 and 174 pounds, respectively, the Quakers cruised to a 24-10 victory by finishing with three consecutive victories.

At Lehigh, the Tigers didn’t fare much better, though Kolodzik and Lowy were impressive once again. Kolodzik earned the sole victory for Princeton with a 15-3 major decision over Lehigh’s Brian Tanen.

Wrestling Lehigh’s Nate Brown, Lowy was caught off-guard to start the first period as Brown put Lowy on his back for a five-point move, but Lowy wrestled his opponent evenly the rest of the match. If Lowy can prevent the occasional hiccup, he will have a shot to place well at the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association Championships in two weeks and make nationals after starting off the season slowly.

At 141 pounds, Krop wrestled Dutton in the marquee match. But midway through the first period, Krop’s leg literally took a turn for the worse.

“I was in a scramble and part way through I felt a lot of tension in my knee, and it just popped,” Krop said. “Even the kid I was wrestling told his coaches that my knee had popped.”

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The “pop” told Krop that he was wrestling without an ACL, but after taking the full two minutes of an injury timeout, he hopped back on the mat. After pivoting his leg to score an escape and tie the match at 2-2 in the second period, the pain was too much. Krop looked at the ref and told him “I’m done.”

“For now I’m just icing,” Krop said of what he’s trying to do to get back on the mats. “Obviously I’m going to do whatever I can to try to wrestle,” he said.

Krop wants more than anything, however, to get a rematch against Kemmerer.

“I was hoping to see Kemmerer in the EIWA finals. In my head that was when I was going to get my revenge … I had a lot more confidence because I felt like I didn’t wrestle to my full potential in that match,” he said.

Like Krop, freshman Chris Perez has a torn ACL, which he sustained while wrestling against Harvard two weeks ago. Perez is expected to return to the mats for the EIWA championships, whereas even if Krop wrestles in two weeks, he will not be at his healthiest.

But will Krop be healthy enough to qualify for the NCAA Tournament? That is the question that he will try to answer by March 3, when wrestlers from across the East Coast flock to Jadwin Gymnasium for the EIWA championships.