The 125-pound rookie, who dealt with the pressure of a New Jersey state championship match last year, defeated Penn's Jeremy Schwartz 3-2 Saturday to cap a 10-0 rally and finish off a 19-15 victory for the Tigers. The win gives Princeton a 1-0 mark in the Ivy League, and it ends a 24-match losing streak to the Quakers.
Princeton trailed 15-9 after Penn won two thrillers in nationally ranked showdowns, but the Tigers had their sophomore captain, 11th-ranked Brett Harner, ready to lead the final surge. He scored multiple takedowns in a 15-3 major decision over Joe Heyob to cut the deficit to 15-13.
The critical match followed, as junior Ray O'Donnell took on Penn's Patrik Garren at 285. The two split a pair of matches last season; O'Donnell lost a decision to Garren in the dual, but he beat him during consolations at the EIWA Championships. The rubber match was 1-0 in the third when O'Donnell -- who started on top in the third -- turned Garren for a four-point move and ultimately won 6-1.
"I love wrestling matches here, and I love closing them out," O'Donnell said. "I was really just in a good mood, which is funny and ironic for wrestling. I knew I was going to get the win. I saw him laying there, and I knew top was a strong suit of mine, so I knew I needed to get it done."
The left the match on the tough shoulders of D'Arcy, who thrilled the orange-clad crowd on Alumni Day with a first-period takedown. Schwartz escaped, and both added escapes later in the match, but D'Arcy scrambled his way over a wild final 30 seconds to avoid a takedown and clinch the win.
"You put the blinders on and you focus on the match," D'Arcy said about the pressure of his match. "You don't let the crowd affect you, you just focus on what you need to do. It was very important [to get the first takedown]. You want to get the lead. You want to build on it, which I didn't do it, but I kept wrestling."
Princeton got an early win from Jordan Laster at 141, and then saw two of its veterans return to the mat in Chris Perez and Adam Krop. Perez battled hard against 10th-ranked CJ Cobb, but he couldn't manage a takedown in a 3-0 loss. Krop got taken down almost immediately at 157 in his second match in more than a year (he topped F&M earlier in the day), but then he took total control in a 10-5 victory over 20th-ranked May Bethea.
Senior Judd Ziegler, who had been part of three dual losses to Penn in his career, had a win that may get overshadowed by the late heroics, but was critical to the overall success. He scored an early takedown against Brooks Martino and controlled a hard-fought final five minutes in a 5-3 win.
Penn rallied in the next two matches, both featuring Top 20 wrestlers, to gain a 15-9 lead, but Harner's major paved the way to the thrilling conclusion.
"This is huge for our program and our alumni, which came out in force today," head coach Chris Ayres said. "It's been one step at a time. I learned quickly that this would take time, and we all stuck to it together. The game plan is to keep working our way, keep knocking them down until we're the best team in the country.
"Some of the people in the stands, like Johnny Orr, our Friends Group president, stuck with me this whole time," Ayres added. "Having him here, this is for him and guys who helped us the whole way. A lot of the guys that I coached in the early years, a lot of them came back. I told them that this was for them too. But we have a lot of work still to do, and we have some big goals in front of us."
Princeton, which opened the day with a 35-6 win over Franklin & Marshall, will try to end another streak Sunday. The Tigers will host Rutgers -- winners of 18 straight in the series -- at 1 pm in Jadwin Gym. The match will be streamed live on the Ivy League Digital Network.
Princeton 35, Franklin & Marshall 6
133 - Scott Stevens (FM) dec. Trey Aslanian 8-2
141 - Rick Durso (FM) dec. Jordan Laster 2-0
149 - Chris Perez (P) dec. Jason Bing 8-4
157 - Adam Krop (P) WBF Patrick Quinlan
165 - Judd Ziegler (P) wins by forfeit
174 - #14 Jonathan Schleifer (P) dec. Joshua Young 13-9
184 - #19 Abram Ayala (P) mdec. Anthony Mancini 15-4
197 - #11 Brett Harner (P) WBF Charles Kerkesner
285 - Ray O'Donnell (P) dec. Antonio Pelusi 5-4
125 - Pat D'Arcy (P) mdec. Aaron Moldoff 9-0
Princeton 19, Penn 15
133 - Caleb Richardson (Penn) WBF Jake Adkins 2:28
141 - Jordan Laster (Prin) dec. Marc Mastropietro 9-5
149 - #10 CJ Cobb (Penn) dec, Chris Perez 3-0
157 - Adam Krop (Prin) dec. #20 May Bethea 10-5
165 - Judd Ziegler (Prin) dec. Brooks Martino 5-3
174 - #17 Casey Kent (Penn) dec. #14 Jonathan Schleifer 11-9
184 - #12 Lorenzo Thomas (Penn) dec. #19 Abram Ayala 5-4
197 - #11 Brett Harner (Prin) mdec. Joe Heyob 15-3
285 - Ray O'Donnell (Prin) dec. Patrik Garren 6-1
125 - Pat D'Arcy (Prin) dec. Jeremy Schwartz 3-2
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