Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Midlands Championships
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Ayala Takes 5th, Harner 8th, As Wrestling Earns Top-15 Finish At Midlands
December 31, 2014 | Wrestling
Junior Abram Ayala finished his 2014 Midlands Championships on a high note, defeating 10th-seeded Jeff Koepke of Illinois 5-3 to claim fifth place at 197 pounds. His victory, as well as an eighth-place finish for Brett Harner at 184, helped the Tigers place 15th overall at the prestigious holiday tournament at Northwestern.
Ayala, a quarterfinalist who was knocked off Monday evening by eventual finalist Timmy MacCall of Wisconsin, won back-to-back 3-2 decisions to begin his second day. After knocking off Penn's Frank Mattiace, he defeated Cal State Bakersfield's Ruben Franklin to clinch a top-six finish.
Ayala dropped his next match, but then bounced back to defeat Koepke to finish fifth. It was the second-highest Midlands finish for Princeton under head coach Chris Ayres, who left the tournament knowing that his squad will grow from this competition that included several of the nation's best squads.
"All in all I think it was a good tournament for the team as this is the closest thing to NCAAs they will see until the real thing," Ayres said. "Abram wrestled very tight, but still placed, which is a very good sign. He will make some adjustments from this that will take him to a higher level.
"The same is true for Harner," Ayres added. "They both need to trust their wrestling a little more. The rest of the team performed well in some of the time, but not all of the time. We need a little more consistency of effort."
Harner received a medical forfeit to open his day, and then lost back-to-back one-point decisions to wrestlers ranked in the national Top 20. He lost to Illinois' Nikko Reyes 5-4 to move into the seventh-place match, and finished eighth with a 5-4 loss to Wisconsin's Ricky Robertson.
Both Jon Schleifer and Francesco Fabozzi fell one match short of placewinner status. Fabozzi (157) lost to ninth-seeded Brandon Zeerip of Eastern Michigan, while Schleifer (165) lost to Minnesota's Pat Smith.