No. 17 Rutgers wrestling routs short-handed Princeton, wins 4th straight rivalry match
The final buzzer sounded. No. 19 senior 125-pounder Dean Peterson walked toward the Princeton bench and put up a heart with his hands, taunting them after his 5-3 win over No. 30 Ethan Rivera for his first ranked victory of the season.
Despite the Rutgers wrestling team winning comfortably, 32-7, on Sunday afternoon at Jadwin Gymnasium, the long-lasting rivalry between both teams was on full display in the 87th installment. The Scarlet Knights (5-2, 0-0) won 8 of their 10 bouts to earn their fourth straight win over the Tigers (2-4, 0-0) and 28 of the last 29 matchups.
Princeton was missing two of its best wrestlers — No. 18 Luke Stout at 197 pounds and No. 9 Ty Whalen at 149 pounds — turning the tide of the match even more in favor of No. 17 Rutgers.
The dual untraditionally started at 141 pounds, with No. 24 senior 141-pounder Joseph Olivieri winning 5-2 over Drew Heethuis. Olivieri landed a first-period takedown en route to his second straight win.
No. 31 senior 149-pounder Andrew Clark — who lost 4-1 in sudden victory to Lucas Kapusta of Lock Haven on Friday — bounced back with a 5-0 shutout decision against Christopher Martino, amassing more than 2 minutes of riding time.
The Knights had full control of the dual — freshman 157-pounder Conner Harer picked up his second straight win, No. 27 senior 165-pounder Anthony White came out on top despite a third-period scare and No. 20 graduate student 174-pounder Jackson Turley pinned Xavier Giles in the third period.
Rutgers led 19-0 at the intermission with two bonus-point victories.
Coming out of the break was the marquee bout of the afternoon with sophomore 184-pounder Shane Cartagena-Walsh versus No. 27 Mikey Squires. Cartagena-Walsh had the chance to earn a third straight ranked win, but he lost 3-0, his fourth defeat of the season and first defeat to a ranked opponent.
Making his second straight start at 197 pounds, No. 22 junior 184-pounder Brian Soldano went up against Diego Costa. In typical fashion, Soldano did exactly what he does best — the Soldano pin, landing the fall at the 1:34 mark of the first period. It was Soldano's second straight fall competing at 197 after pinning Tucker Hogan on Friday.
No. 9 graduate student 285-pounder Yaraslau Slavikouski picked up the Knights' fourth bonus point win, defeating No. 33 Sebastian Garibaldi with a 16-3 major decision. It was Slavikouski's second-ranked victory this season.
Peterson then defeated Rivera, but junior 133-pounder Brandan Chletsos — making his first dual start of the season — lost 9-1.
Rutgers will travel to Pennsylvania and Ohio for three upcoming matches next weekend.
"Good win, I would have liked to wrestle some of the really good guys, but I mean, injuries and everything," said head coach Scott Goodale. "This is a rivalry match, so you never know what you're gonna get. There was a couple of close ones … We just gotta continue to improve, still not where we want to be, nowhere near where we want to be but we shouldn't be either … Overall, good weekend, two good programs and we'll carry this forward."
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