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EIWA Championships Preview: 16 Teams, 10 Titles, 51 NCAA Allocations
March 04, 2016 | Wrestling
LIVE BRACKETS/RESULTS: FloArena
OFFICIAL TWITTER: @2016EIWAs
OTHER PREVIEWS: Princeton Preview l EIWA Championships Podcast
Jadwin Gym is no stranger to wrestling history.
This has been the site of five previous EIWA Championships (1969, 1979, 1981, 1987 and 2012), as well as both the 1975 and 1981 NCAA Championships. It was also the former site for the New Jersey state high school championships, and there will be plenty of former Garden State champions battling for EIWA glory this weekend.
The last time the EIWA Championships came to Princeton, there was no shortage of excitement. For the first time since 1963, an unseeded wrestler (Brown's Dave Foxen) won an individual title. The team title was decided in overtime of the last match of the tournament; Cornell won that title to continue a streak that has reached an unprecedented nine straight entering the 2016 Championships.
So history is on our side this weekend. When wrestling comes to Jadwin, it rarely disappoints.
Of course, the EIWA Championships rarely disappoint anywhere.
How good has this league been this year? Well, the chart in the next column tells that story. Fifty-one wrestlers from this tournament will punch their direct ticket to the World's Most Famous Arena, and several others are likely to receive at-large berths to the NCAA Championships.
In other words, more than one-third of the competitors here are likely to vie for the NCAA title in two weeks. A few will be favorites to be there on ESPN that final Saturday night of the wrestling season. Who knows … maybe we'll even see a rematch of a showdown from this weekend.
There's at least one weight class where that looks like a real possibility.
And while many of you know those favorites, there will be a few people who you probably didn't know coming into the weekend, but you won't soon forget after it. That was the story of Dave Foxen in 2012, but who will author it this year?
Let's find out together. Here is a quick look at each weight class, as well as the team race that could come down to the wire once again.
125
NCAA Bids: 3
Defending Champion: Nahshon Garrett, Cornell
Past Five Champs: Cornell 5
Cornell has won this weight an incredible seven straight times, including three by top-ranked 133-pounder Nahshon Garrett and two by Troy Nickerson, who will be inducted into the EIWA Hall of Fame this weekend. So that's pretty elite company. Dalton Macri certainly could extend that streak to eight, but 2015 finalist David Terao, third-place finisher Paul Petrov and 2014 All-American Darian Cruz will all likely hold the top three seeds in the draw.
133
NCAA Bids: 3
Defending Champion: Kevin Devoy, Drexel
Past Five Champs: Lehigh 2, Cornell, Penn, Drexel
Nahshon Garrett is the top-ranked wrestler in the Feb. 21 Coaches Rankings; the next wrestler from the EIWA to be ranked is Lehigh's Mason Beckman, who is 24th. Garrett, a former NCAA finalist at 125, is 28-0 this year, and only eight of those wins have come by decision. Stranger things have happened (probably?), but it's more likely that 15 wrestlers are competing for two tickets to NCAAs.
141
NCAA Bids: 6
Defending Champion: Randy Cruz, Lehigh
Past Five Champs: American 2, Franklin & Marshall, Harvard, Lehigh
How loaded is this field? The last three champions at 141 (Rick Durso, F&M; Todd Preston, Harvard; Randy Cruz, Lehigh) are all in the field, as is 2015 finalist Jordan Laster of Princeton.
Cruz won this event in his home arena last year, but only injury has defeated Preston the last two years. After winning the 2014 crown, he suffered an injury during the quarterfinals last year and was forced out of both the tournament and the NCAAs. Durso leads the group with 30 wins on the season, and he has the opportunity to bookend his collegiate career with EIWA titles.
Don't look past Bucknell's Tyler Smith, either. He is currently 22nd in the Coaches Ranks and has won his last seven matches.
149
NCAA Bids: 5
Defending Champion: Chris Villalonga, Cornell
Past Five Champs: Cornell 2, Bucknell, Lehigh, Columbia
Drexel's Matt Cimato and Penn's CJ Cobb will likely come in as the top seeds at this weight; Clagon has 30 wins on the season and is ninth in the Coaches Ranks. Of his five losses this season, though, one was to Cobb, a potential opponent if form holds early. Cobb is looking to get in gear quickly, as he dropped his most recent dual to Cornell's Joey Galasso, and then he didn't wrestle during Penn's final week of the season. Lehigh's Laike Gardner would be a tough opponent for either in the semifinals; he went 0-for-2 against Cobb this year, though both matches were close.
157
NCAA Bids: 6
Defending Champion: Brian Realbuto, Cornell
Past Five Champs: Cornell 2, American, Lehigh, Boston University
How is this for a loaded field? While defending champion Brian Realbuto has moved up two weights, this group has defending finalist John Boyle, Markus Scheidel, as well as former NCAA qualifiers Russell Parsons, Adam Krop and Justin Staudenmayer — and none of them is likely to be the top seed. That should go to Dylan Palacio, currently the seventh-ranked wrestler in the nation by InterMat.
Palacio just missed All-America honors last year, and he has only one loss this season.
165
NCAA Bids: 4
Defending Champion: Peyton Walsh, Navy
Past Five Champs: Rutgers, Lehigh, Cornell, Hofstra, Navy
Six different schools have won this title over the last six years, and there are certainly a couple of contenders to continue that trend to seven. Harvard's Devon Gobbo is ranked 20th nationally, while both Mitchell Wrightman (American) and Tyrel White (Columbia) were listed in the final Coaches Rankings.
That being said, the road to the title still goes through the top two programs currently. Cornell's Duke Pickett and Lehigh's Ryan Preisch are likely to be the top two seeds. Pickett is ranked higher on the InterMat ranks (15/16), while Preisch was higher in the Coaches Ranks (12/14). This weight may not draw as much attention as others, but it could quietly play a big role in determining the team champion.
174
NCAA Bids: 7
Defending Champion: Jadaen Bernstein, Navy
Past Five Champs: Navy 2, Cornell, Brown, Lehigh
The next two weight classes are incredibly competitive. Jadaen Bernstein of Navy was one of the best stories of the 2015 EIWA Championships; he won the title as a freshman, won 27 matches this season … and he may still be only the fifth seed this weekend.
Realbuto, an NCAA finalist at 157 last year, will be the top seed and is currently ranked second nationally. He is 29-3 on the season, with all three losses coming at the Southern Scuffle, and his last two matches of the season were wins over the two guys likely to be the next two seeds in this draw: Penn's Casey Kent and Princeton's Jonathan Schleifer. By the way, should you see a Kent-Schleifer showdown this weekend, don't take your eyes off it; the two wrestled an 11-9 thriller last month, which Kent won in comeback fashion.
Army West Point's Brian Harvey comes into the weekend with the momentum of two late-season wins over Bernstein, and he also owns a win over Kent this season.
184
NCAA Bids: 7
Defending Champion: Gabe Dean, Cornell
Past Five Champs: Cornell 3, Lehigh 2
If there is one match that you could see during the final session this weekend AND the final session at NCAAs, the most likely option is Cornell's Gabe Dean vs. Lehigh's Nathaniel Brown. Dean, the reigning NCAA champion, is 25-1 this season and currently ranked first in both the InterMat and Coaches Ranks. Brown is 18-2, ranked third in both polls, and hasn't lost since an 8-2 decision to Dean in the Southern Scuffle final.
Of course, there are plenty of wrestlers hoping to break up that showdown, including Penn's Lorenzo Thomas, who took Dean to sudden victory in a dual meet three weeks ago. Navy's Matthew Miller is ranked 14th nationally, while Binghamton's Steven Schneider is 18th. Princeton senior Abram Ayala is a two-time NCAA qualifier who lost a wild match to Thomas last month; after a bit of a mid-season drought, Ayala has turned things around with six straight wins.
197
NCAA Bids: 4
Defending Champion: Jace Bennett, Cornell
Past Five Champs: Cornell 4, Penn
Princeton hasn't won an EIWA individual title since Greg Parker's victory in 2003, and the Tigers would love nothing more than to end that drought at home. While there are a handful of possibilities, none will be seeded as high as junior Brett Harner, the likely top seed at 197.
Harner caught fire heading into EIWAs last year with wins over two All-Americans, but he suffered an injury at practice the week before and was forced to default. He has 28 wins this year and stands 11th in the latest Coaches Ranks.
Lehigh's John Bolich dropped a close decision to Harner early in the season, but he is the only other EIWA wrestler in the InterMat Top 20 and will likely take the 2 seed. The Academies have two real threats at this weight: Navy's Michael Woulfe is the only EIWA wrestler with a win over Harner this season, while Army's Bryce Barnes has 17 wins, including an Army-Navy dual win over Woulfe.
285
NCAA Bids: 6
Defending Champion: Tyler Deuel (Binghamton)
Past Five Champs: American 2, Navy, Bucknell, Binghamton
Bucknell's Joe Stolfi is a two-time finalist at this weight and the 2014 champion, and he'll likely enter the weekend as the top seed. His closest competitor is probably Lehigh's Max Wessell, though Stolfi ranked ahead of Wessell in both the Coaches and InterMat ranks.
Beyond them, Hofstra's Mike Hughes and a trio of Ivy Leaguers — Princeton's Ray O'Donnell, Cornell's Jeramy Sweany and Columbia's Garrett Ryan — should all be factors at the weight, though none own a win this season over either Stolfi or Wessell.
TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
Defending Champion: Cornell (ninth straight title)
If the drama between Cornell and Lehigh is even remotely close to the 2012 tension, then we're all in for a good weekend. Lehigh won the dual between the two teams earlier this season, but the Big Red is ranked eight spots higher than Lehigh in the latest InterMat tournament rankings. Based solely on the final EIWA rankings, Lehigh has the higher-ranked wrestler in six of the 10 weights, but Cornell has a 4-3 edge in potential top seeds.
It isn't likely that anybody i s going to break into that top two, but Bucknell, Princeton and Penn could be top contenders for the third spot.
by Craig Sachson