TAKING HOLD: Princeton University wrestler Brett Harner controls a foe in recent action. Junior star and co-captain Harner has been a key performer for the Tigers at 197 pounds as Princeton is continuing its ascension up the ladder of college wrestling. The Tigers recently won the Navy Classic and have been ranked in the Top-25 nationally this season. Princeton is next in action when it competes in the prestigious Midlands Championships from December 29-30 at Northwestern. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

Achieving a major breakthrough at the end of last season, the Princeton University wrestling team saw a program-record five performers qualify for the NCAA Championships.

This season, the Tigers produced another milestone by late November as they won the Navy Classic, highlighted by four individual champions.

In the view of Princeton head coach Chris Ayres, earning the title was a key step in his program’s ascension up the ladder of college wrestling.

“It was huge, we wrestled pretty darn well, to a man we either met our seed or exceeded our seed,” said Ayres, whose individual champions at the competition were junior Jordan Laster (141 pounds), sophomore Jonathan Schleifer (174), senior Abram Ayala (184), and junior Brett Harner (197).

“We definitely over-performed. There were some good teams there with two top-25 teams at the time and we were the champs. I think for the team that was huge. It was like a go-ahead, it was permission, now hey you guys, you can be good if you want to be good.”

Ayres has some huge goals for the Tigers. “There is a belief we could be really good and the intensity level every year just keeps getting higher and higher because you just have more better kids in the room,” said Ayres, who is in his 10th year at the helm of the Tiger program and was an All-American at Lehigh during his college wrestling career.

“There is a lot of excitement; it has been a long time since we have had a lot of success. I think the program is ready for it and I think these are the kids that are going to propel it. I think they feel that. For us, the No. 1 thing is that we need All-Americans and we need national champs and those are the goals every year. I think realistically we feel that we could place in the top 3 in the EIWA (Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association) tournament. Our lineup is such, that if things come together, we could make a run at the Ivies or even the EIWA but a lot would have to come together. We don’t limit ourselves to anything really.”

Princeton has faced some fierce competition this season to test its limits, including facing No. 4 Nebraska in the Grapple at the Garden in New York City on November 29 and then taking on No. 13 Illinois later that day. The Tigers acquitted themselves well in those matchups, falling 21-12 to Nebraska and 20-15 to Illinois.

“We have the toughest schedule in the Ivy League; it is not even a question, our schedule is tougher than Cornell’s,” said Ayres, referring to the perennial Ivy League power Big Red.

“The whole idea in planning a schedule like this is simply to prepare our guys for the end of the year. If I was concerned about the team’s record, we would not have scheduled those teams. We put them through a meat grinder of a schedule. We split the matches with Illinois but lost on bonus points. We wrestled Nebraska really tough. What I like about that is that the scoreboard was disappointing but we wrestled hard and that is what we preach. It is not about outcomes, it is about the process and going out there and the effort that you put forward. Our guys fought their tails off in those matches so I was real proud of them.”

The team’s effort in pushing Nebraska and Illinois helped vault the Tigers into the Top 25 in the national rankings.

“It hasn’t happened since I have been here and I don’t know when the last time was,” said Ayres, whose team fell out of the poll after a loss to Lehigh in early December and is currently 2-4 in dual match competition.

“It is a step along the way that we need to hit before we can get into the next area so it was big.”

In Ayres’ view, depth has helped Princeton make strides. “We have six guys who could be All-Americans, of course getting there and getting them to do it. is another story,” said Ayres.

“We have really good guys on the team that you can generally count on them to do well. What is nice about our schedule is that we have wrestled some really, really tough teams so that when we get into this second semester, we are going to wrestle some more tough teams but we are not going to see the type of team we have seen this semester. I think the guys are owning that a little bit, they know they have been through something. I think that for those leaders we are going to make it pay off down the road.”

The Tigers boast two key leaders in junior Harner and senior Chris Perez (149), who was one of Princeton’s five NCAA qualifiers last season along with Harner, Laster, Schleifer, and Ayala.

“Brett Harner has been a great leader from the beginning; he was a captain last year as a sophomore and he is a captain this year as a junior,” said Ayres.

“Right before Grapple in the Garden, we named Chris Perez as a captain. He has really stepped it up this year in terms of being more vocal. He has been really good. Perez is amazing; he leads in competition and creates some competitive fire out there. Those two really have the team in mind.”

While Harner and Perez may be captains, Ayres sees a shared leadership in the room.

“I have been around some good teams at Lehigh and the dynamic here is very similar,” said Ayres.

“At times, when you have some decent teams there will be one great leader and the other guys are followers. But this group is very connected to the team portion of it so that is cool to see. I think each guy, in their own way, is leading a lot.”

Having two dynamic young stars in sophomore Schleifer and freshman Pat D’Arcy (125) makes the group even more formidable.

“Schleifer is amazing; he is one of the best guys I have ever coached,” said Ayres.

“He is a little inconsistent but we are working on that; getting him to do what he is capable of doing is our only job right now, getting him out there and getting him loose. He has been ranked very high. D’Arcy is just great; he is a tough kid. You can count on him, he is like Mr. Effort. He is a blue collar type of kid who just goes out there and does his job every time. You never have to worry about him losing composure, he is pretty steady.”

Princeton is hoping to do the job next week as it competes in the prestigious Midlands Championships from December 29-30 at Northwestern.

“At the NCAAs, we want to be in the top 20 at the very least, so what that equates to at Midlands is probably a top-10 finish,” said Ayres, whose team placed 15th at the 2014 Midlands competition.

“There are six or seven guys on the team who can place and do well in this tournament. If you would have told me that I was going to have all of those champs at Navy, I probably would have said it could happen but it is unlikely. I expect to be in the top 10 or the top 5, something like that. I definitely think we are capable of that.”