Freshmen Padlak, Kopecki Place in Wrestling Finals

Paul Padlak and Andy Kopecki, Harvard's only two entries in the Eastern Freshman Wrestling Tournament, each captured second place in his class Saturday at West Point.

Padlak, captain of the freshman team, had wrestled as high as heavyweight during the regular season, but he pared himself down to 147 for the tournament. He defeated three consecutive opponents-Don Yocum of Maryland 5-0 in overtime, Earl Rotundi of Temple 6-0, and Bob Capagrossi of Cornell 3-1-before Bloomsberg State's Bill Sutter stopped him 40 in the finals.

Wrestling at 115, Kopecki also reached the finals, downing the first four men to face him: Billy Rand of Lehigh 3-2, Tom Russell of Albany State 11-3, Tom Boyd of Bloomsberg State 6-5, and Bill Matias of Syracuse 5-0 in overtime. In the finals Kopecki was defeated by Bob McGann of Oswego State Teachers' College 7-5.

Largely on the strength of his performance against Kopecki, McGann was awarded the trophy as the tournament's outstanding wrestler.

"It's really the best we've done in the eight years we've been going to the tournament," said Harvard freshman coach Johnny Lee, who accompanied his two wrestlers to West Point. "I think they did as well as they possibly could."

Lee said that he thought Sutter, who was three times high school champion of New York State, was the best wrestler in the tournament. Bloomsberg, a small college in Pennsylvania, entered six men in the Easterns; two besides Sutter won championships.