Matmen Lose Eastern Finals; Top-Seeded Starr Takes Fifth

Harvard's championship-bound grapplers were unable to keep up the pace of their competitors and lost crucial matches in the Eastern Intercollegiate wrestling championship tourney last Saturday in Pittsburgh.

Crimson captain Richie Starr. top-seeded at 190, dropped two out three matches to place fifth in the East.

Dan Blakinger (118), who had stuggled Friday to make the semifinals, lost three matches Saturday to place sixth in his weight class. Bruce Johnson (167) failed to place when he picked up his second tournament loss in a wild 12-14 battle against Columbia captain Bob Sacavage.

Pittsburgh's Craig Tritch locked up Starr, 9-3, in the opening semifinal match. Starr worked on overturning a 1-3 deficit in the second round but suddenly went cold. Tritch scored on repeated takedowns and appeared to breeze through the rest of the match.

"Tritch didn't seem to quit. Somehow it seemed he wanted the championship more than Starr did," Harvard coach John Lee said afterwards. Tritch went on to win the championship.

Starr wrestled a close match against Penn's Rich Zweig, in a bout reminiscent of their 2-2 tie earlier this month. This time, Zweig executed a quick reverse in the closing seconds of the match and won 5-4. Starr took fifth place by drubbing Columbia's Bob Waller, 7-1.

Blakinger fell to top-seeded Mike Frick of Lehigh, 13-4, in a mismatched duel. Frick, who was the first freshman to win the championship, was too overpowering with his size advantage. Blakinger then lost to George Bryant of Pittsburgh, 10-2, and dropped a 6-5 decision to Princeton's Lee Klepper, whom Blakinger defeated earlier this season, 4-3.