EWING, N.J. — Wilkes Wrestling headed to New Jersey Friday night to put up their best fight against the #No. 19 team. The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) are always fierce contenders.

Senior Josh Evans said, “I feel like we wrestled decently in certain positions, but there are definitely some areas we need to continue to improve on as we move toward the Regional tournament.”

Evans mentioned that this meet against TCNJ and an upcoming meet against Ithaca, another top ranked team, gives the Colonels an “opportunity to wrestle some great competition before the post season.”

This meet will help them prepare by allowing the team to recognize mistakes they have made, making adjustments, and getting back to the grind.

“We’ll be focused in improving every day and peaking at the right time moving forward,” said Evans.

“We had some guys out due to injury and illness,” senior Matthew Grossmann said. “Flu season is a hardship that many winter sports face.”

“It was a good learning experience,” said Grossmann, who had the only victory scoring 6 points against TCNJ’s 42.

Even though the results didn’t show it, I think we are making improvements in the right direction,” Grossmann added.

The TCNJ meet adjusted Wilkes’ overall record for dual matches to 10-13.

TCNJ 42, Wilkes 6

125: Dan Ortega (TCNJ) def.  Kyle Trout (Wilkes) Major dec. 10-0

133: James Goldscmidt (TCNJ) def. Jake Dimarsico (Wilkes) fall 1:32

141: Grossman (Wilkes) def. Robert Dinger (TCNJ) fall 2:11

149: Eric Friedman (TCNJ) def. Josh Evans (Wilkes) dec. 4-1

157: JT Beirne (TCNJ) def. Kyle Medrow (Wilkes) fall 4:03

165: Luke Balina (TCNJ) win by forfeit

174: Dan Kilroy (TCNJ) def. John Ritter (Wilkes) major dec. 9-0

184: Thomas Anderson (TCNJ) def. Matthew Judge (Wilkes) dec. 3-2

197: Pat Schinder (TCNJ) def. Nasser McCummings (Wilkes) fall 4:58

HWT: Kyle Cocozza (TCNJ) def. Richard Thompson III (Wilkes) major dec. 8-0