Kolodzik Flourishes On Final Day, Sweeps Top-4 Pair For 3rd-Place Finish

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NCAA RECAPS: Session 4 l Session 3 l Session 2 l Session 1
HIGHLIGHT/INTERVIEW VIDEOS: Kolodzik On Quarterfinal l Kolodzik On Round 2
MORE LINKS: Weekend Preview l Video: Schleifer Makes Princeton History l Princeton Takes 3rd at EIWAs

Matthew Kolodzik punctuated his sophomore year with an exclamation point, and you can assume he gave the wrestling community something to think about for next season. The two-time Princeton All-American defeated both #2 Brandon Sorenson of Iowa and #4 Troy Heilmann to place third at the 2018 NCAA Championships in Cleveland.

Kolodzik's remarkable Saturday sweep means that he will have beaten the second, third (Missouri's Grant Leeth), fourth, and sixth (Central Michigan's Justin Oliver) seeds in the span of less than 48 hours inside the Quicken Loans Arena. Kolodzik is the only non-senior among the top-five finishers at 149, and he is one of only three placewinners at the weight who return next season.

Kolodzik continues to add superlatives to his still-young Princeton career. He is the sixth multiple-time All-American in program history, and he is one of only three wrestlers (joining John Orr '85 and Greg Parker '03) to finish in the Top 5 at NCAAs over the last 40 years. Kolodzik also joins Parker and John Sefter '78 as the only Princeton wrestlers to win multiple EIWA titles and All-American honors.

And Kolodzik still has two more years to go.

In a career that has already spanned 59 victories, few (if any) were as impressive as his Saturday opener against the second-seeded Sorenson, the four-time All-American and 2016 NCAA runner-up. The Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering major was the aggressor throughout the first period, and he was rewarded late with a takedown that opened a 2-0 lead.

Kolodzik added a quick escape in the second, but a stall call got Sorenson within two points going into the final period. He cut that in half with an escape, but Kolodzik refused to get defensive late and kept on the attack. A shot in the final 45 seconds gave him some insurance for a 5-2 lead, and he closed in style with another score in the final moments to close a 7-3 victory.

He had about an hour of rest before returning to the mat to face Heilmann, a third-place showdown that was far more defensive at the start. Neither managed to score in the first, and both escaped quickly to make it 1-1 deep into the third. Heilmann appeared to have an advantage with a shot to the leg, but Kolodzik balanced himself, fought it and scrambled to a top position for a 3-2 lead. Heilmann would escape, but Kolodzik wasn't about to let that lead slip away. He fended off a late shot to secure a 3-2 victory.

Kolodzik actually put Princeton in position to place inside the Top 25 — at one point Saturday, the Tigers were 24th — but the two teams behind them in striking distance both won by fall, leaving the Tigers in 26th place, one spot below its finish from St. Louis in 2017.

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