Poor Calls Hurt Frosh Grapplers In Final Round

Two "highly questionable" referee's calls deprived Freshman wrestlers Mark Faller and John Imrie of victories in the finals of the 42-school Plebe Tournament Saturday at West Point.

Faller, a 160-pounder, had wrestled his Brown opponent to a 1-1 deadlock at the end of the regulation match.

In the overtime period, Faller saw a one point lead wiped out in the last minute when two penalty points were charged against him. The referee called Faller for locking hands while riding his opponent and seconds later for pushing him off the mat.

In the 191-pound class, top-seeded Imrie breezed through his preliminary matches, winning by 14-3, 15-2, and 4-1 margins.

Down 3-2 in the finals, Imrie "had four takedowns in the last two minutes," Coach John Lee contended. However, the referee judged that the takedowns were all off the mat, giving the victory to Williamson from Princeton. Imrie had beaten Williamson 12-4 during the regular season.

All three other Crimson grapplers in the tournament advanced at least to the quarter-finals.

In the heavyweight semi-finals, Tom Tripp saw his 4-3 lead erased with 15 seconds left when his mammoth 280-pound opponent capitalized on Tripp's takedown attempt and reversed the maneuver for a 5-4 win.

Pat Coleman, at 152, won his first two encounters before bowing to Stroesser of Temple 3-1 in the quarter-finals.

Tom Reyner's performance in the 177-pound class offset an otherwise frustrating day, Lee said.

Reyner looked impressive in his initial matches, crushing his counterpart from West Point 10-2 and then pinning his rival from Ithaca.

In the quarter-finals, he drew the top-seeded wrestler in the division, who had flattened Reyner 9-0 earlier in the year. This time the vastly-improved Reyner held his opponent to a 5-3 victory.