Ivy League Champs! No. 16 Princeton Defeats No. 17 Cornell to Win First Ivy Title Since 1986

Regardless of how it's measured, Sunday's streak-ending, history-making 19-13 dual-match win for the 16th-ranked Princeton wrestling team over No. 17 Cornell was a long time coming.

"It's an amazing feeling," Ayres said. "I've been thinking about this for 14 years, visualizing this, and write it in journals and repeat the goals all the time. This is one thing that we've put on our, I guess, I don't know if it's a bucket list, but it's a list, and we just checked it off, which is pretty good."

It's worth a couple checks on that list. For the program, it ended a 34-year Ivy League title drought, and it ended a 32-match losing streak to Cornell, as the Tigers last did either in 1986. For most of this century, Princeton was in good company in being unable to solve the Big Red, as Cornell extended its Ivy dual-match win streak to 92 with Saturday's win over Penn.

For Princeton coach Chris Ayres, the win's significance is measured not only in duration, but in depth. Beyond Princeton being on the short end of 17 of those 92 consecutive Cornell wins, the margins were often lopsided.

Ayres' portion of the program's path to Sunday's result began with his hiring in 2006, and Princeton didn't win a dual match of any kind until Dec. 6, 2008, starting 0-for-37. Princeton didn't win an Ivy League dual under Ayres until Feb. 5, 2010, starting 0-15 against the league.

After dropping the first three meetings with Cornell under Ayres a combined 158-0, Princeton got on the board against the Big Red in 2010, even in losing by 43. The margin zig-zagged in the years since, hitting lows of 21 in 2012, 20 in 2015, and seven in 2016.

"It's been hard," Ayres said. "You go up there and they come here and you think you can do it, and last year was especially rough, and you don't get it done. It happens so many times, it just seems to get really hard."

And then came Sunday, and for more than half the match, it wasn't so clear that history would change.

"My guys, they showed a lot of courage out there today," Ayres said. "It wasn't pretty, but they were fighting us. They didn't want to give that up. They didn't want to give up that string of wins, and it turned out to be a great dual."

Cornell, which won the chance to decide the beginning weight, started the day with wins in three of the first four matches, building a 10-4 lead through 141 after starting at heavyweight. At 125, Cornell's Dominic LaJoie managed to avoid becoming third-ranked Patrick Glory's 13th fall or technical fall in 17 matches this season, losing 9-0.

The Big Red's Hunter Richard had the challenge of facing three-time All-America Matthew Kolodzik, who had his first Princeton bout of the season Saturday result in a big win via technical fall. Richard battled Kolodzik to a 4-2 defeat, keeping a three-point lead for Cornell at 10-7.

The Tigers couldn't know it at the time, but the Kolodzik win started a run of five straight victories that turned the match from an early hole for the Tigers to a clinch, and even before Princeton's third-ranked Patrick Brucki took the mat in the day's finale at 197 in a top-four match against fourth-ranked Ben Darmstadt.

Ayres, who would have started the match at 165 had the option been Princeton's, said the halftime break after Kolodzik's match was a chance to turn the momentum.

"We just said, hey, now it's our turn," Ayres said.

Fourth-ranked Quincy Monday pulled Princeton even at 10-10 with a decision win at 157 over Adam Santoro. Grant Cuomo then turned back a Cornell chance to re-take the momentum with his 8-1 decision over Jakob Brindley at 165, putting Princeton up for the first time all day at 13-10.

Cuomo extended his dual-match winning streak to three, beginning with a pin at Brown and continuing with a 5-3 decision in Saturday's win over Columbia.

"He's starting to feel his mojo a little bit out there, which is pretty sweet. You could see he had a little swagger to him today. I liked that a lot," Ayres said of Cuomo. "Where we hung on in some matches, (which) I didn't like, he put the hammer down in his match. I love that. I love that about Grant Cuomo today. That was awesome."

With the lead at three and with three matches to go, the onus turned to Kevin Parker, who had his own three-match winning streak to extend.

Parker did just that, defeating Andrew Berreyesa 10-3 to put Princeton ahead 16-10.

"Parker did a phenomenal job, phenomenal job," Ayres said. "(Berreyesa), he's good upper body, he's done well at Greco, he does this headlock thing, (and) he gets maybe 80 percent of the guys with this thing, and so Parker was solid and not scared a little bit."

While Princeton was up, with two matches left, the dual was still very much in doubt.

That doubt, though, came nowhere near Travis Stefanik.

"The coaches told me to be the man," Stefanik said. "I came here for those reasons. I came to Princeton to win championships, not just Ivy League championships, but national championships, so they told me to be the man, be the dog and just go out there and do my thing."

The sophomore broke a 4-4 tie late, making a move to flip his match and seal the win for Princeton.

"That was probably Travis Stefanik's breakthrough," Ayres said. "He didn't need to do the cradle, and he went to the cradle, so that was what was crazy. We preach that. We want to be exciting. We want to put points on the board, so instead of just trying to squeak out the takedown, he just went for the kill, and that was amazing.

"Those two matches (at 174 and 184), I think, were the most pivotal in the dual meet, and we got them both," Ayres said. "Huge."

Princeton led 19-10 with just one match left. Battle endured, victory secured, history ensured.

"I don't know if I've ever been that excited, other than Brett Harner being an All-American (in 2016), in somebody winning," Ayres said. "Just the way (Stefanik) did it was phenomenal."

Stefanik has been part of the program for only two seasons, including a freshman year that saw Princeton take third in the EIWA and 15th at the NCAA, its highest national finish since 1978.

Even though Ayres' tenure began when Stefanik was not yet eight years old, Sunday's clinching wrestler knows how far the program has come in that decade and a half.

"Coach Ayres, coming here, starting with an 0-and-something team and not winning a league match for so many years and then just building the program up to today, it's for him and all the coaches and all the wrestlers that have come through," Stefanik said.

The journey isn't over, not with the EIWA and NCAA Championships still to come this winter and the chance to add to Sunday's victory as the seasons endure, but the milestone is a chance to reflect.

"There's just been a lot of people that I feel so grateful that stuck it out, and this is theirs too," Ayres said. "It's the kids, for sure. They did the work today, but getting them to that point is alumni, it's the administration, it's all the parents, the families, so we just have a great, fabulous network that builds our program right now that has been phenomenal."

#16 Princeton 19, #17 Cornell 13

HWT: Brendan Furman (Cornell) wins by major decision over Aidan Conner (Princeton), 9-0
125: #3 Patrick Glory (Princeton) wins by major decision over Dominic LaJoie (Cornell), 9-0
133: #4 Chas Tucker (Cornell) wins by decision over Ty Agaisse (Princeton), 9-3
141: Noah Baughman (Cornell) wins by decision over Marshall Keller (Princeton), 8-4
149: Matthew Kolodzik (Princeton) wins by decision over Hunter Richard (Cornell), 4-2
157: #4 Quincy Monday (Princeton) wins by decision over Adam Santoro (Cornell), 9-7
165: Grant Cuomo (Princeton) wins by decision over Jakob Brindley (Cornell), 8-1
174: Kevin Parker (Princeton) wins by decision over Andrew Berreyesa (Cornell), 10-3
184: Travis Stefanik (Princeton) wins by decision over Jonathan Loew (Cornell), 10-4
197: #4 Ben Darmstadt (Cornell) wins by decision over #3 Patrick Brucki (Princeton), 11-4
A: 1,049

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