Weekend On Campus

The first Ivy League wrestling tournament comes to Jadwin Gym Sunday.

The entire event will take place in one day, beginning with first-round matches at 10 and ending with the finals at 6:30. The league's NCAA tournament bids — 26 in all, the fourth-most of any conference — will be earned at Jadwin.

If you're a wrestling fan, the NCAA championships will be held at the Wells Fargo Center March 20-22. 

Princeton has two No. 1 seeds: Marc-Anthony McGowan at 125 pounds and Luke Stout at 197 pounds. There are six wrestlers in each class. 

It'll be a pretty strong ending to the weekend on campus, one that features an attractive schedule tomorrow as well. 

It begins at noon, when the 12th-ranked women's lacrosse team hosts No. 22 Harvard in the Ivy opener for both. You can watch that one and then head to Jadwin for the Princeton-Penn men's basketball team at 2 in the regular season finale.

The nightcap is the 102nd meeting between Princeton and Rutgers in men's lacrosse, also at Sherrerd Field. Face-off there is at 7, so you have plenty of time to grab something to eat. 

What's riding on the men's basketball game? 

The Ivy League men's and women's basketball tournaments are a week away, beginning one week from today at Brown. The Princeton women, who are at Penn at 2 tomorrow, are locked into the No. 2 seed for the tournament and will play No. 3 Harvard in the second semifinal, this coming Friday at 7:30. 

Columbia will be the No. 1 seed, though a Princeton win over Penn and a Columbia loss to Cornell would mean a share of the Ivy title for the Tigers. 

The men's tournament has three spots clinched, including the top seed, which will be Yale. Dartmouth and Cornell are in as well.

Princeton will join them with a win over Penn — or with a loss to Penn but a Yale win over Brown.  

As a subplot, Penn currently leads the all-time series 126-125. Should Princeton win, it would be the first time since 1905 that the series has been tied. Think about that. 

Speaking of fascinating stats, Princeton senior defenseman Colin Mulshine, a started for the last 46 games and someone who has played in 51 career games, has committed only one career penalty — a 30-second holding penalty against Harvard in 2023. 

That means that Mulshine has a streak of 24 straight penalty-free games. And it's not like he's a passive player. Far from it. He's Princeton No. 1 cover man, and his weekly assignment is almost always the other team's best attackman. 

The winner of the Princeton-Rutgers game is given the Harland (Tots) Meistrell Cup, named for the former great New York City football/lacrosse player who restarted the programs at both schools (Rutgers in 1920, Princeton a year later). He was also a dog-training expert who wrote several books on the subject. 

Princeton comes into the game at 3-1, with three Top 10 wins (Penn State, Duke, North Carolina), all on the road. The only loss is to No. 1 Maryland. 

Rutgers is 3-3, but the Scarlet Knights are always a dangerous opponent. Princeton has had a short week after the trip to Duke/UNC and is coming off midterm week. It'll be a challenge. 

The women's lacrosse team is coming off a 16-7 win over Penn State Wednesday night. If you were anywhere near Princeton Wednesday, you know that it was pouring for the entire game. 

If any team has ever had to deal with rainy games the last two years, it's Princeton. Well, that won't be the case tomorrow, which should be a pretty nice day for mid-March. 

The Tigers have won four straight since an opening day loss to Virginia. They are the No. 10 team in Division I in scoring offense, with 15.8 goals per game. 

Harvard hasn't played since a week ago Wednesday, when the Crimson knocked off nationally ranked UConn, which was preceded by a win over nationally ranked Navy. 

There are other big events this weekend that are not on campus but aren't that far away. You have the men's and women's team squash national championships in Philadelphia. You have the NCAA fencing regionals in Teaneck.

The complete schedule can be found HERE.