Princeton University Athletics
Friday, November 30
Bethlehem, Pa.
7:00 PM
Princeton University
at
Lehigh
Photo by: Ricky Bassman
Wrestling Team Looks For Historic Win At #8 Lehigh
November 29, 2018 | Wrestling
The Princeton wrestling team may not have the left Big Ten country with the head-turning upset it hoped for two weeks ago, but it left with a level of confidence that can only come from competing with the best.
And if that prepared Princeton for a win this Friday night, it would rank with the most historic regular season victories in program history.
Princeton will head to Bethlehem, Pa., Friday night to take on the 8th-ranked Lehigh Mountain Hawks at Leeman-Turner Arena at Grace Hall. Lehigh leads the all-time series 54-5-1 and hasn't dropped a match to Princeton since 1968, a 17-15 home win for the Tigers. You can watch the match live on the Patriot League Network.
Princeton, which was just outside the NWCA Division I Wrestling Coaches Poll this past week, has never won a road match at Lehigh. But few teams have been tested quite like this one.
Those tests go far beyond the trip to #3 Iowa and #11 Wisconsin prior to Thanksgiving, though the latter came down to the final match before the Badgers were able to rally for victory. Head coach Chris Ayres has taken on all comers over the last couple of seasons, and his team responded last March with a third-place finish at the EIWA Championships and a brilliant NCAA weekend by Matthew Kolodzik.
Ayres would love to get a signature early-season win this year, and few places would be as satisfying as his alma mater, where he was a 1998 All-American.
Princeton has three nationally ranked wrestlers coming into the weekend, a trio led by Kolodzik, the top-ranked 149-pound wrestler in the nation. A two-time EIWA champion and All-American, Kolodzik is 2-0 on the young season, and he also has an unofficial win over Duke's Mitch Finesilver at the NWCA All-Star Classic.
Sophomore Patrick Brucki (7th, 197) and freshman Patrick Glory (14th, 125) are also ranked for Princeton, and they are a combined 12-1 on the season, with the lone loss coming by Glory to reigning NCAA champion Spencer Lee of Iowa. Glory is also one of four freshmen in the Princeton starting lineup, and that quartet has combined for a 19-10 record on the season. One of those freshman is 174-pounder Travis Stefanik, who brought a Pennsylvania state championship to the Lehigh Valley as a senior at Nazareth.
Lehigh, who will face #1 Penn State on Sunday, has a projected starting lineup with five nationally ranked opponents between 165 and 285. Sixth-ranked heavyweight Jordan Wood and seventh-ranked Jordan Kutler (174) and Ryan Preisch (184) lead that upperweight powerhouse; that trio helped the Mountain Hawks dethrone Cornell as EIWA champions this past March.
PROJECTED MATCHUPS
And if that prepared Princeton for a win this Friday night, it would rank with the most historic regular season victories in program history.
Princeton will head to Bethlehem, Pa., Friday night to take on the 8th-ranked Lehigh Mountain Hawks at Leeman-Turner Arena at Grace Hall. Lehigh leads the all-time series 54-5-1 and hasn't dropped a match to Princeton since 1968, a 17-15 home win for the Tigers. You can watch the match live on the Patriot League Network.
Princeton, which was just outside the NWCA Division I Wrestling Coaches Poll this past week, has never won a road match at Lehigh. But few teams have been tested quite like this one.
Those tests go far beyond the trip to #3 Iowa and #11 Wisconsin prior to Thanksgiving, though the latter came down to the final match before the Badgers were able to rally for victory. Head coach Chris Ayres has taken on all comers over the last couple of seasons, and his team responded last March with a third-place finish at the EIWA Championships and a brilliant NCAA weekend by Matthew Kolodzik.
Ayres would love to get a signature early-season win this year, and few places would be as satisfying as his alma mater, where he was a 1998 All-American.
Princeton has three nationally ranked wrestlers coming into the weekend, a trio led by Kolodzik, the top-ranked 149-pound wrestler in the nation. A two-time EIWA champion and All-American, Kolodzik is 2-0 on the young season, and he also has an unofficial win over Duke's Mitch Finesilver at the NWCA All-Star Classic.
Sophomore Patrick Brucki (7th, 197) and freshman Patrick Glory (14th, 125) are also ranked for Princeton, and they are a combined 12-1 on the season, with the lone loss coming by Glory to reigning NCAA champion Spencer Lee of Iowa. Glory is also one of four freshmen in the Princeton starting lineup, and that quartet has combined for a 19-10 record on the season. One of those freshman is 174-pounder Travis Stefanik, who brought a Pennsylvania state championship to the Lehigh Valley as a senior at Nazareth.
Lehigh, who will face #1 Penn State on Sunday, has a projected starting lineup with five nationally ranked opponents between 165 and 285. Sixth-ranked heavyweight Jordan Wood and seventh-ranked Jordan Kutler (174) and Ryan Preisch (184) lead that upperweight powerhouse; that trio helped the Mountain Hawks dethrone Cornell as EIWA champions this past March.
PROJECTED MATCHUPS
| Princeton | Weight | Lehigh |
| #14 Patrick Glory (5-1) | 125 | Nick Farro (3-1) |
| Jonathan Gomez (2-4) | 133 | Brandon Paetzell (2-2) |
| Marshall Keller (5-3) | 141 | Ryan Pomrinca (0-4) |
| #1 Matthew Kolodzik (2-0) | 149 | Luke Karam (0-1) |
| Quincy Monday 4-3 | 157 | Kent Lane (1-3) |
| Dale Tiongson (5-3) | 165 | #11 Cole Walter (1-2) |
| Travis Stefanik (5-2) | 174 | #7 Jordan Kutler (3-1) |
| Kevin Parker (5-2) | 184 | #7 Ryan Preisch (2-1) |
| #7 Patrick Brucki (7-0) | 197 | #15 Jake Jakobsen (4-0) |
| Obinna Ajah (2-4) | 285 | #6 Jordan Wood (4-0) |
Players Mentioned
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