Matmen Open 'Juggling Act' Season Today

Some tilt windmills; the Harvard wrestling team tries to beat Cornell for the Ivy League championship. This year Coach Bob Pickett will juggle his line-up before each meet to fulfill his glorious quest.

The coach has five returnees from last year scheduled for starting positions this year. He also has a returnee from two years ago who forsook wrestling last year for football.

What makes Pickett a juggler is a corps of capable sophomores this year whom he can insert at any position when he repositions veterans for strategic reasons. In some meets, he'll match Harvard strength with enemy strength; in others he'll attack weakness to get sure points. The sophomores will fill holes in each case.

The first test is today as the matmen travel to New London, Conn. for the two-day Coast Guard Academy Tournament. The Crimson finished third in the 16-team tournament last year. It returns with Captain Ed Franquemont set for the 147-pound class, and veteran seniors Howie Henjyoji at 123, Chris Wickens at 177, Jeff Grant at 167, and Dave Greuel -- the prodigal football player -- at 160 in today's match-ups.

Pickett's veteran junior is Paul Padlak, wrestling at 191 in today's tournament, after starting at 167 most of last season. "He just sort of bulked up over the summer," Pickett said the other day, but he figures Padlak as a 177, perhaps a 167, man for the main part of the season.

As for the sophomores, the big man in many ways is heavyweight Bob Panoff, who must fill the size 15 shoes of talented--but graduated--Tack Chace. It's Panoff's job, and he may be called upon to deliver winning points in tight meets.

One tight meet may be Cornell, according to Pickett. The Crimson should have beaten the perennial champions last year, he says, and they can do it this year.

Pickett has his impossible dream, but this year his juggling could find him his Dulcinea.