Tiger Wrestling Has Titles, All-Americans In Focus On Eve Of 2019 NCAA Championships

LINKS: Princeton Notes Packet (with individual match results) l NCAA Brackets (PDF) l Seven Tigers, Ayres Earn All-Ivy League Honors

With All-Americans and NCAA titles in their focus, Princeton has brought six wrestlers to the NCAA Championships, which will be held Thursday-Saturday at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh. All six sessions will be televised on either ESPN (all three nights) or ESPNU (all earlier sessions), and you can get mat-by-mat coverage on ESPN3/WatchESPN; more information for following along can be found here. Also, make sure you are following @tigerwrestling on Twitter to get updates and mat links of when Princeton wrestlers are competing.

Here is the weekend schedule:

THURSDAY, MARCH 21
12 pm - Session I (8 mats - pigtails and 1st round) - ESPNU
7 pm - Session II (8 mats - 2nd round, wrestlebacks) - ESPN

FRIDAY, MARCH 22
11 am - Session III (8 mats - quarterfinals and wrestlebacks) - ESPNU
8 pm - Session IV (6 mats - semifinals and wrestlebacks) - ESPN

SATURDAY, MARCH 23
11 am - Session V (3 mats - wrestleback semifinals and 3rd/5th/7th place matches) - ESPNU
7 pm - Session VI (1 mat - finals and awards ceremony) - ESPN

Sensational Six
Princeton will bring six wrestlers to the 2019 NCAA Championships, the second-most in program history (seven, 2017). Three Tigers enter as top-seven seeds: Patrick Brucki (third, 197); Matthew Kolodzik (fifth, 149); and Patrick Glory (seventh, 125). Quincy Monday is the 26th seed at 157 after earning an automatic bid at EIWAs. Both Travis Stefanik (174) and Kevin Parker (184) earned at-large bids and are the #31 seeds at their respective weights.

Making History
Junior Matthew Kolodzik can make program history in Pittsburgh by becoming the first Princeton wrestler to earn All-American honors in three different years. He was the first Tiger to ever earn a spot on the podium as a freshman (7th, 2017), and he had Princeton's best finish since 2002 (finalist Greg Parker) last year (3rd).

The only other Tiger with NCAA experience is Patrick Brucki, who went 1-2 at the 2018 Championships, including an upset of 16th-seeded Christian Brunner.

First Up
Four Princeton wrestlers will make their NCAA debuts this weekend, including the freshman trio of Patrick Glory, Quincy Monday and Travis Stefanik. Junior Kevin Parker, whose older brother Greg is Princeton's last NCAA finalist (2002), is also making his debut.

Fresh Faces
Princeton Wrestling made its debut in 1905, and between that year and 2018, only six Tiger freshmen qualified for the NCAA Championships: Dennis Underkoffler, 1973; Kevin Roesch, 1975; Garrett Frey, 2010; Jonathan Schleifer, 2015; Matthew Kolodzik, 2017; and Patrick Brucki, 2018.

This year alone, three Princeton freshmen (Glory, Monday, Stefanik) are in the NCAA field.

We Are The Champions
Both Patrick Brucki and Patrick Glory won EIWA individual titles two weeks ago, and both did so while avenging regular-season losses to Cornell opponents. Glory came in as the 2-seed and defeated top-seeded Vitali Arujau 10-8 to become the 125-pound champion. Brucki was the top seed at 197, and he defeated third-seeded Ben Honis 8-6 to claim his first title.

Those victories helped Princeton earn a third-place finish for the third straight season; the Tigers hadn't finished that high over a three-year stretch since 1936-38.

Rank And File
Princeton ended the regular season as the #19 team in the NWCA Coaches Ranking, the highest-ever ranking for the team. The Tigers defeated two higher-ranked teams during the season; they ended a 14-match losing streak to Lehigh — and earned their first ever road win in the series — with a 21-19 victory in Bethlehem over the #8 Mountain Hawks on Nov. 30, and they topped #15 North Carolina 23-16 in a home dual on January 11.

It's Been A While
Princeton has had one individual NCAA champion in the 111-year history of the wrestling program; junior Bradley Glass '53 won the unlimited title by official's decision over Penn State's Homar Barr. Trailing 2-1 entering the final period, the top-seeded Glass rode Barr the whole way to earn the tying point, and he earned the referee's decision to win the title.

Looking For Number 11
Princeton has had 10 wrestlers earn All-America honors at least once in their careers: Warren Taylor '43 (1942); Bradley Glass '53 (1951, 1952); Emil Deliere '72 (1970, 1972); John Sefter '78 (1977, 1978); Henry Milligan '81 (1981); John Orr '85 (1984, 1985); Dave Crisanti '86 (1985); Greg Parker '03 (2002, 2003); Brett Harner (2016); and Matthew Kolodzik (2017, 2018). Princeton has never had an All-American three straight years.

Princeton has only had multiple All-Americans one time (1985, Crisanti/Orr).

Facts And Figures Per Round
Princeton has had five NCAA finalists: Glass (1951), Deliere (1972), Sefter (1978), Orr (1984, 1985), and Parker (2002). During the Chris Ayres era, one Princeton wrestler has reached the semifinal (Kolodzik fell to Lock Haven's Ronnie Perry last year); three Princeton wrestlers have reached the quarterfinals: Daniel Kolodzik (Matt's older brother) fell to American's Ganbayar Sanjaa in 2012; Harner fell to eventual NCAA champion J'den Cox of Missouri in 2016; and Kolodzik fell to Rutgers' Anthony Ashnault in 2017 and defeated Missouri's Grant Leeth last year.

I'm Honored
Head coach Chris Ayres, a 1998 All-American at 157 while wrestling for Lehigh, was just named the Ivy League Co-Coach of the Year for the third time in the last four years. A former EIWA Coach of the Year, Ayres has led a renaissance of Princeton Wrestling. Now in his 13th season, Ayres has rebuilt the program from the ground up and led Princeton to its best NWCA ranking (#19) in program history. He has finished third at three straight EIWAs for the first time in program history, and he did so only one decade after Princeton went 0-18 and didn't field a 133-pound wrestler at the conference meet.

MARCH 13 UPDATE: Three Princeton Tigers earned top-seven seeds at the NCAA Championships, which begin next Thursday morning at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh.

197 - Despite being ranked #3 for the majority of the season, Midlands and EIWA champion Patrick Brucki will be the #4 seed next week and will take on Brandon Whitman of North Carolina in the opener. They didn't meet during the regular season.

149 - Two-time All-American Matthew Kolodzik is the fifth seed and will open against Michael Sprague of American; Kolodzik defeated Sprague 9-3 in the consolation round of the EIWA Championships last week.

125 - Freshman Patrick Glory will make his NCAA Championships debut as the 7-seed and will take on Malik Heinselman of Ohio State, who he didn't wrestle during the season.

157 - Freshman Quincy Monday is the 26th seed (every wrestler was seeded), and will take on #7 Larry Early of Old Dominion. They met in the first collegiate weekend of the season, when Early scored a 6-2 win over Monday in the Tiger Open semifinal.

174 - Freshman Travis Stefanik, one of two Princeton wrestlers to earn at-large bids, drew the #2 seed, Daniel Lewis of Missouri. They didn't meet during the season.

184 - Not only did junior Kevin Parker also earn an at-large bid, but he will also face the #2 seed at his weight; Parker will take on Penn State's Shakur Rasheed in the first round. They also did not meet this season.

MARCH 12 UPDATE: Junior Kevin Parker and freshman Travis Stefanik will join Patrick Brucki, Patrick Glory, Matthew Kolodzik and Quincy Monday next week at the 2019 NCAA Championships, as both earned at-large selections Tuesday by the NCAA. The at-large selections were made by the NCAA Division I Wrestling Committee using the following selection criteria: head-to-head competition, quality wins, results against common opponents, winning percentage, rating percentage index, coaches ranking and conference tournament finish.

This will be the second-largest contingent of Princeton Wrestlers at an NCAA Championships in program history, trailing only the seven-Tiger team that competed at the 2017 Championships. Brucki and Glory earned their berths by winning their first EIWA titles last weekend, while both Kolodzik and Monday clinched spots at NCAAs by earning one of the automatic bids at their respective EIWA weight classes.

Stefanik and Parker had to play the waiting game, but both did their parts during both the regular season and EIWA Championships. Parker, who will make his NCAA Championships debut next week, went 21-12 against a daunting schedule, while Stefanik went 19-13 and knocked off third-seeded Ben Harvey of Army on his way to the EIWA semifinal. Both wrestlers finished one spot away from an automatic bid, and those efforts were rewarded with tickets to PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, where the NCAA Championships will be held March 21-23.

Seeding and brackets will be unveiled during the Selection Show on NCAA.com Wednesday at 6 pm, and brackets will be posted on NCAA.com at the conclusion of the show. This page will also be updated Wednesday night with announcements of seeding and Princeton-specific bracket information.

The full NCAA field can be found here.

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