Upset Over Penn Recharges Wrestling Team

Last week, the wrestling team was in the midst of a three-game losing streak against their Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA) opponents. Since Jan. 21, Columbia had lost dual meets to Lehigh, Army, and Cornell. One weekend and two wins later, including an upset of 16th-ranked Penn, the newly resurgent Lions find themselves with an EIWA record of 2-3 and a shot at one of the top seeds in the league tournament. And both head coach Brendan Buckley and senior captain Justin Barent believe that the team's resurgence is due in large part to a renewed mental focus.

"I knew after Lehigh, we were focusing on Cornell and we ended up losing to Army," Barent said. "We've been trying to focus on one match at a time [since then]."

On Friday night, the Light Blue got their first win in a dual meet in over a month when they routed Princeton, 37-6. Aside from a double forfeit at 133 pounds and a second forfeit at 141, Columbia did not give up any matches to the Tigers. Junior Brandon Kinney and senior Dustin Tillman had pins at 125 and 165 pounds. And although Buckley chose to rest most of his starters, the Lions were still dominant over Princeton, defeating them 94-25 in individual matches. Buckley believed the win over Princeton the night before had a positive effect on the team's morale going into the meet against the Quakers.

"It's nice, of course, when you have a match the night before where we can dominate like that. It helps your confidence a little bit," he said.

The next evening, before a raucous home crowd at Levien Gymnasium, the Lions upended Penn 22-12, beating the Quakers for the first time in 14 years. The win came off several hard-won individual matches.

Junior Nick Sommerfeld's 12-11 opening win in the 197-pound class was the first of seven for Columbia that night. Sommerfeld narrowly prevailed over Jack Sullivan, and freshman Matt Dunn and Barent also had come-from-behind wins at 149 and 184 pounds.

"At least three bouts we won after we were in the hole, which is huge," Buckley said. "That's not easy to do."

On the physical level, Buckley maintains the team has done nothing different than it did against Lehigh and Cornell. At the same time, however, he notes that there is a certain mental aspect to wrestling that is reflected in close matches like Sommerfeld's and Dunn's against Penn.

"There was really just the mental component that we had this week that we didn't have a couple of weeks ago," Buckley said. "Everyone who won that night has been working hard. They were focused. It was a very solid performance."

"He [Buckley] has been telling us to focus on our individual matches," Barent added, "and not to get caught up in the dual [meet]."

That attitude of perseverance has manifested itself in several wrestlers on the team. On Saturday, Kinney won his match at 125 pounds in a sudden victory decision in overtime. In addition, nationally-ranked seniors Matt Palmer and Barent came out on top against higher-ranked opponents.

"Our guys are showing consistency, which is really important at this time of year," Buckley said.

With the win over Penn, Columbia ended its wrestling season at home. The Lions have a four-day break until they travel to Providence to take on Brown. The next day, the team will head to Cambridge to face Harvard and Bucknell in its last match against an Ivy opponent before the EIWA tournament. The weekend's home sweep of Princeton and Penn may have generated the momentum Columbia needs in order to go far in the tournament.

"We've got a lot of confidence right now, and we want to close out the dual meet season strong," Buckley said. "That will be a great way to head into the conference tournament."

Barent shared his coach's sentiments on the need to finish the season on a high note.

"If everyone does their job well, the team will do well," he said.