Wrestling Heads To Madison Square Garden To 'Grapple' With #9 Virginia Tech

The early-season gauntlet for the Princeton wrestling team continues Sunday afternoon, as the Tigers will head to the famed Madison Square Garden in New York City to take on the ninth-ranked Virginia Tech Hokies at 4 pm during the annual Grapple at the Garden competition.

Unlike past years, when the Grapple featured eight mats with several nationally ranked teams, the format has changed to a one-mat show that will feature six matches throughout the day. Princeton and Virginia Tech will be the fifth match on the card and is slated for the 4:00 start, in between the earlier LIU Post/Wilkes match and the later Hofstra/George Mason match.

You can purchase tickets to the event here. FloWrestling will be live streaming the match here.

Princeton, which challenged fifth-ranked Lehigh in a 25-13 home loss last weekend, will get another shot at a Top-10 program Sunday, one of three such showdowns this month alone. Next weekend, the Tigers will head to the Carpenter Center in Newark, Del., to take on #1 Ohio State at 8:00 pm.

The highlight match of the entire day could come at 149 pounds, where Princeton sophomore All-American Matthew Kolodzik, currently ranked seventh at the weight by InterMat, could take on 11^th-ranked Solomon Chishko of Virginia Tech. Those two didn't meet in last season's dual, which the Hokies won 28-11 in Dillon Gym, as Kolodzik wrestled at 141 last year. Chishko did have a key 9-3 win over Princeton's Jordan Laster, which helped fight off a quick Tiger start that night.

Another key match could occur at 165, where Virginia Tech could send 4^th-ranked sophomore David McFadden against Princeton senior co-captain and three-time NCAA qualifier Jonathan Schleifer, who is coming off an impressive win over ranked Lehigh starter Gordon Wolf last weekend.

Princeton will need to find an answer to a loaded set of upperweights for the Hokies, starting with 7th-ranked Zack Zavatsky (184), and including 3^rd-ranked Jared Haught (197) and 17^th-ranked Andrew Dunn (285).

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