Matmen Give Powerful Yale a Scare, But Bulldogs Survive Upset Bid, 21-16

The varsity wrestlers gave the powerful Yale Bulldogs a furious fight yesterday at the IAB but fell just short in their bid for a startling upset victory, losing 21-16.

Yale certainly shaped up as a formidable foe. The Elis came into the match with a 4-0 Ivy record, with Harvard the only remaining team with a decent chance to prevent them from completing an undefeated romp to the league title.

Last week, the Bulldogs handed Princeton its only Ivy League loss in a 17-16 squeaker; earlier this year Princeton stomped all over the Crimson, 31-7. Last Saturday, Yale warmed up by clobbering Penn, 43-4, the same Quaker team that had gone down to the last match with the Crimson before bowing out, 20-16. To sum it all up, Harvard's chances against Yale did not look good.

Still Some Hope

Nevertheless, Harvard coach John Lee thought that there was hope if the Crimson could build an early lead and then hope for some breaks against Yale's potent heavyweight grapplers. As it turned out, only a questionable call prevented this game plan from working out perfectly.

In the day's first contest, Dave Albert (118 lbs.) was shaded by his Yale opponent, 4-3. The winning points came when the Bulldog grappler tried a pinning move on Albert, who rolled through safely. Nevertheless, the referee awarded two points to Yale for a predicament, a call that left Lee in disbelief.

"We lost 118 on a bum call," he said afterwards. "The Yale coach and I have never agreed on many things, but after the match even he came up to me and said that it was a gift."

It makes little difference, since Yale later cried foul on a number of calls that went Harvard's way. But, when the smoke had cleared nine matches later, Albert's loss represented the margin of victory.

Early Lead

In the rest of the lightweight matches, Harvard's hopes to build an early lead were fulfilled. Milt Yasunaga (126 lbs.) triumphed, 5-3, in a hard-fought match. Bull Mulvihill (134 lbs.) fell behind, 4-2, narrowly escaped being pinned, then rallied to win, 7-4.

George Baker (142 lbs.) faced a Bulldog who was an unbelievably powerful-looking wrestler but who was, fortunately, rather unversed in technique. Baker taught him a lesson on the way to a 17-8 superior decision.

Harvard led, 10-3, but Yale had not yet begun to fight. In the next match, it sent out Jim Bennett, the Ivy League's first NCAA champion in 16 years. He completely toyed with outmatched Harvard wrestler Tom Bixby, who left the mat with a serious shoulder injury after several minutes. Yale was awarded six points for the default, cutting the Crimson lead to one.

Jim Corcoran (158 lbs.) faced another Bulldog whom Harvard could have no realistic expectation of beating, and came away a 10-4 loser. Next, Yale's Jack Moses manhandled freshman Ed Bordley for a superior decision. The Elis led, 16-10.

Captain Jim Strathmeyer (177 lbs.) kept Harvard's hopes alive with an escape in the closing seconds that gave him a bitterly contested 4-3 triumph.

Meaningless Win

But Yale smelled the victory and was not about to let it get away. Neal Brandel (190 lbs.), another superb Yale grappler, completely overpowered Harvard's Sal D'Agostino, 15-1, to clinch the Elis triumph. Without a win at 118, Kip Smith's 4-3 victory for Harvard in the unlimited bracket was meaningless, except to make the final score close enough to remind everyone of the upset that might have been.

Yale will now probably roll on to an undisputed Ivy championship without having to break a sweat. Harvard, on the other hand, has now lost three contests that hinged on a single match. The latest two, disappointing losses to Columbia and Yale, cost Harvard a three-way league tie with the Bulldogs and Princeton.

Instead, with three matches remaining on the schedule, Harvard finds itself with a 5-7 record and needs to win all three contests to avoid a losing season. It is indeed a strange way to end the campaign for a team that came so close to a share of the Ivy League title.