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Meet Me In St. Louis ? A Day 2 Primer For Going From The EIWAs To The NCAAs
March 07, 2015 | Wrestling
Following a thrilling first day of the EIWA Championships, here is a quick Day 2 primer, with some explanations of how each wrestler can advance to the NCAA Championships later this month.
You can follow live results through the @tigerwrestling and @PUTigers_Live twitter feeds during the morning session, which begins at 10 am, as well as the finals, which begin at 5:30 pm. A full recap of the weekend will be available tonight on GoPrincetonTigers.com.
141 – Jordan Laster
Laster will wrestle the eighth-seeded David Pearce of Drexel in the semifinal round Saturday morning. A victory would send him directly into the finals, as well as the NCAA Championships, but he would also have two more opportunities to reach his first NCAAs as well.
The weight class will send five to the NCAAs, so Laster's second shot would come in his next match against the winner of the consolation showdown between Army's Logan Everett and Penn's Jeff Canfora. If Laster won that, he could finish no worse than fourth and would be assured of the spot at NCAAs. If he lost that, he would wrestle during the night session in the 5/6 final, and the winner of that would head to NCAAs.
149 – Chris Perez
Perez had the biggest upset for a Princeton wrestler in the quarterfinal round, as the sixth seed knocked off third-seeded Cody Ruggirello to reach his first EIWA semifinal. He will take on Penn's CJ Cobb, who he lost to 6-1 two weeks ago at the Palestra; if Perez can reverse that decision, he is going to the EIWA final and the NCAA Championships.
He will have less margin for error if he loses, though. The weight will only take three to NCAAs, so Perez would need to win out if he loses to Cobb. He would start that path against the winner of the Victor Lopez (Bucknell)/Steven Galiardo (Brown) match; if he won that, he would wrestle for third during the night session against the survivor of the top half of the bracket.
157 – Rich Eva
How would this be for a dream finish? Eva, who missed the last two years because of a variety of injuries, needs only one win Saturday to end his career at the NCAA Championships.
The weight will take seven to NCAAs, and Eva will have two chances to make it. He starts against the second-seeded Mitchell Minotti of Lehigh, who was upset in the quarterfinals. If Eva wins, he could finish no worse than sixth. If he loses, he will take on either Columbia's Markus Scheidel or Penn's Brooks Martino for seventh place. Scheidel defeated Eva 7-0 in the first round of the main draw, while Martino defeated Eva 1-0 at the Palestra two weeks ago.
165 – Jonathan Schleifer
The first Princeton wrestler to earn Ivy League Rookie of the Year honors will have two shots at the NCAA Championships Saturday. He will vie for a spot in the EIWA finals against top-seeded Peyton Walsh of Navy; Schleifer dropped an 11-10 decision to Walsh in the finals of the Navy Classic in November.
If Schleifer loses that match, he would need to win his next one to go to the NCAAs. The weight class will take four, so his consolation semifinal against the winner of the Marshall Peppelman (Lehigh)/Tyrel White (Columbia) match would be guaranteed a trip to St. Louis.
197 – Abram Ayala
The top seed at 197 is already going to the NCAAs, since the weight class is taking six and he can finish no lower than sixth place. But Ayala's RPI and Coaches' Rank probably assured him that trip to NCAAs anyway. Ayala's sole focus is winning the EIWA championship, and that path starts with a semifinal against Penn's Canaan Bethea. Ayala defeated Bethea by one point two weeks ago at Penn.
285 – Ray O'Donnell
The eighth-seeded O'Donnell went 2-1 yesterday, and he'll need two more wins Saturday to advance to NCAAs. He opens against fifth-seeded David Ng of Harvard, whom he lost 5-2 against during the regular season. If he wins that match, then he would need to win one of his next two matches — and he would be guaranteed two shots at that point — to advance.