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Three ACL Tears Later, Perez Leads Tigers Back To Grapple At The Garden
December 18, 2014 | Wrestling
GRAPPLE AT THE GARDEN LINKS:
Live Results l @TigerWrestling l @PUTigers l Lehigh Wrestling l Army Wrestling
For Chris Perez, there was no need for a trainer to come out. He knew.
“It was just a little quick step that made the difference,” he said. “I knew, pretty much immediately, that it was torn.”
Perez, wrestling at 141 for the Tigers at the 2013 Grapple at the Garden, was taking on Army's Tyler Rauenzahn when he suffered the injury. Unfortunately, after having already suffered two torn ACLs in his career, he was well aware of the feeling.
The injury put Princeton in a rough spot, as it was already trailing 6-3 early in the match. A default would have put the Tigers down nine points — not an insurmountable total, but not exactly the start you hoped.
Perez would have none of it.
“I knew we were in a close match,” he remembers. “It really wasn't just a decision for me and for pride, but it was also for the team. I knew it was going to come down to the wire, so giving up those team points would not have been acceptable for me.”
Despite incredible pain, Perez stayed on the mat and gutted out an 8-4 loss. Those three points were the lead that heavyweight Cole Lampman took to the mat in his final match; instead of being tied with the match on the line, his team led 18-15. With less pressure, Lampman capped a team sweep with a 3-2 victory.
You figured it would be the ultimate exclamation point to a promising, but injury-ravaged career for Perez. He earned the 133-pound starting job as a freshman. His first torn ACL came during the Harvard match, but he came back to compete at the EIWA Championships, where he actually won two matches and placed eighth.
Surely this third ACL tear would be the one that forced his hand, right? A courageous display that helped Princeton sweep its first ever trip to the Grapple at the Garden was a fitting conclusion for somebody whose passion for both the team and the sport was beyond question.
To paraphrase his word, unacceptable.
“Wrestling is a sport where you have to deal with adversity,” Perez said. “There is a path for everyone, and obviously mine hasn't been easy, but you have to deal with the cards you've been given. The coaches made me take some time and really think about my future in wrestling, but at the end of the day, I just can't seem to get myself away from it. The doctors told me to stop, but I love it, so I'm back here.”
On Sunday, the New York native will be back there.
There is Madison Square Garden, the World's Most Famous Arena, for the 2014 Grapple at the Garden. He isn't there just to raise spirits or cheer on teammates; he's there to win.
Perez is one of two probable starters — along with talented freshman Francisco Fabozzi — for Princeton at 157 pounds this season. He was on the mat for two of the Tigers' wins at the Windy City Duals, and he could be called on again Sunday as Princeton takes on both 10th-ranked Lehigh (10 am) and Army (noon) in the third annual event.
“There are so many great supporters of wrestling that have worked incredibly hard to put the sport on the biggest stages of America,” assistant coach Sean Gray said of the Grapple at the Garden. “It's a tremendous opportunity to showcase Division I wrestling, but to do it on that stage and to have those fans in such a hotbed for the sport come out and cheer has just been tremendous.”
Princeton knows it has an opportunity to showcase its own growth this weekend, especially in that opening match. After a near upset of Northwestern and a second-place showing at the Navy Classic, the Tigers were just outside the NWCA Top 25 rankings. The slip-up against Binghamton dropped the Tigers out of that category, but a victory over Lehigh would more than make up for that loss.
The Mountain Hawks come into the weekend with three wrestlers ranked in the Top 20, including third-ranked Nathaniel Brown (184) and sixth-ranked Mason Beckman (133). This is an especially big opportunity for Princeton sophomore Brett Harner, who is 13-1 at 184 but has remained unranked all season. Harner hasn't had a signature victory during the season; a win over Brown would turn plenty of heads.
There is a potential Top-20 matchup at 197, as Princeton's 10th-ranked Abram Ayala could face Lehigh's 17th-ranked Elliot Riddick. This level of competition is nothing new to Ayala (12-1), who is 2-1 this season against Top-15 opponents.
Princeton hasn't defeated Lehigh — the alma mater of head coach Chris Ayres — in a dual match since Jan. 13, 1968, and it has won only 5 of 56 meetings.
Army comes into the weekend with a 1-1 record. The Black Knights are led by 157-pounder Russell Parsons, currently ranked 20th nationally.