TULSA, Okla. — A 71-year drought has ended for the Princeton University wrestling team.
With one last solid performance, Princeton senior Patrick Glory captured the 125-pound championship at the NCAA Division I Championships at a sold-out BOK Arena on Saturday night.
With the win, Glory became Princeton’s first champion since 1951 and only the second in program history.
A two-time New Jersey state champion at Delbarton High, Glory completed a perfect 25-0 season with a 4-1 victory over Purdue’s Matt Ramos in the championship match.
Glory forced the action for most of the match, but Ramos was able to get out of vulnerable positions on several occasions and avoid the takedown.
Until the third period, that is, when Slava was finally able to complete the takedown and take a 3-0 lead. Knowing how strong Glory is at first, Ramos went neutral to start third. Ramos’ lone point came on a late challenge, while Glory’s fourth point came in driving time.
“We did it,” Glory said excitedly. “It’s all part of the community around me. I have so many people to thank.”
When the tournament began, No. 2 seed Glory was expected to compete in the finals against top seed Spencer Lee of Iowa, who was seeking his fourth national title. That didn’t happen when Ramos defeated Lee in the semifinals, but for Glory it was all about staying focused and fighting for his match no matter who his opponent was.
As a result, Glory was dominant from start to finish as he followed through in the first round with 10-0, 8-4, 8-2 and finally 4-1 decisions.
“I wish (teammate) Quincy (Monday) could have been in the finals with me, but I just wanted to prove to everybody that I could do it,” said Glory, who finished second last year. “Patrick Glory is a national champion.”
Indeed, and he did it in style, avoiding the pitfalls of a tournament that was littered with notable upsets.
In other results involving wrestlers from New Jersey colleges, Princeton’s Monday (167) and Rider’s Ethan Laird (197) finished their All-America performances earlier in the day.
After falling on a hard-fought one-point decision in the semi-finals, Monday bounced back with two high-quality wins over formidable opponents to finish third.
First, Monday beat Wisconsin’s Dean Hamity 9-7. The Princeton senior then capped off a stellar career with the Tigers, which included a runner-up finish at the national championships last year, with a 3-2 decision over Michigan’s Cameron Amin. Monday’s final record for the year was 27-3.
“It was just heartbreaking, it was really hard, I was really upset, especially the way (the semi-final) ended,” Monday said. “I didn’t go out on my terms, so I decided to do it (finish third).”
After losing in the semifinals on Friday night, Rider’s Laird lost two more matches on Saturday to finish in sixth place. Laird’s day started with a 5-2 loss to Cal Poly’s Bernie Truax. He then lost again 7-3 to Iowa’s Jacob Warner in the fifth/sixth match.
Although Laird finished the year with three straight losses, his final record of 28-4 and semifinal appearance was one of the best seasons in Raider wrestling history.
The two New Jersey scholastic wrestlers who placed third were Penn State freshman Shane Van Ness (149 pounds) (Blair Academy) and Cornell (174 pounds) Chris Foca (Bergen Catholic).
As expected, Penn State won the team championship for the 10th time in the last 12 years the tournament has been held, officially locking it in contention.
For the second year in a row, Penn State advanced five wrestlers to the finals, and two of them won. Penn State’s final margin over second-place Iowa was a record 55 points. Cornell was third.
