Princeton University Athletics
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Wrestling Team Gets Eliminated At EIWA Championships
March 07, 2009 | Wrestling
Despite a pair of quarterfinal appearances in the 105th EIWA Championships, the 2008-09 Princeton wrestling season ended one day short of what head coach Chris Ayres wished. Each of his seven competitors were eliminated during the first day of the two-day championship meet at The Palestra.
Senior Marty Everin and freshman Kurt Brendel were Princeton's lone seeded competitors, and both reached the championship quarterfinals before falling to higher-seeded wrestlers. Everin, the 157-pound captain, was seeded sixth and defeated American's Patrick Graham in a 12-7 pre-quarterfinal match. That sent Everin into a contest with the third-seeded Matt Dragon of Penn; in their earlier meeting, Dragon had recorded a two-point win over Everin. History repeated itself in front of his fired-up home crowd, as Dragon knocked Everin into the consolation bracket with a 10-8 decision.
Everin then matched up with unseeded sophomore Scott Sechler of Bucknell. Sechler had nearly pulled off an upset over the fifth-seeded Joel Ahern of Navy in the first round, but lost a 3-1 decision. He reversed those fortunes against Everin, winning a tight 5-4 match and ending an impressive senior campaign by the three-year captain.
Brendel received a bye in the 184-pound quarterfinal, which was the good news. The bad news is that his first opponent was top-seeded David Craig of Lehigh. The Mountain Hawk junior made quick work of Brendel, pinning him in 1:38 to reach the semifinal. Brendel then faced off against Eddie Ebewo of East Stroudsburg and, like Everin, saw his season end in a disappointing one-point loss. Ebewo claimed a 6-5 decision to advance closer to a potential NCAA berth.
Junior Robert Benitez (125) was pinned in his pre-quarterfinal match by the third-seeded Derek Reber of Bucknell, and was eliminated from the competition when American's Thomas Williams defeated him by a 16-0 tech fall in 6:11. Freshman Daniel Kolodzik took on fourth-seeded Cesar Grajales of Penn in the pre-quarterfinals and fell 10-1, but he came back with an 8-0 major decision over Brown's Dave Foxen in his first consolation match. Sixth-seeded Kevin LeValley of Bucknell was his next rival, and LeValley pinned Kolodzik in 3:40 to end the Tiger freshman's first EIWA competition.
Another pair of freshmen also made their EIWA debut. At 165, Andy Lowy dropped an 8-4 decision to Columbia's Eren Civan, the sixth-seeded competitor in the field. Lowy was eliminated by an 11-5 decision to Navy's Matt DeMichiel. At heavyweight, Stephen Turner was pinned in 1:48 by top-seeded Ryan Flores of Columbia, and then dropped a close 3-2 match to Navy's Tyler Moyer.
Princeton sophomore Travis Erdman also drew the top seed in his weight class (174), and dropped a 14-4 decision to American's Mike Cannon. He battled back for a 16-10 victory over Columbia's Mike Wolfer, who had defeated Erdman in the regular season dual match between the Lions and Tigers. Erdman's run ended at the hands of Franklin & Marshall's Justin Herbert; the seventh-seeded Herbert scored a 14-2 major decision over Erdman.