Wrestling Team Splits Matches Coast Guard Loss Dulls Wins

The Harvard wrestling team went fishing at MIT Saturday, where the matmen hoped to catch both MIT and the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. They landed MIT with no fight, but the big one got away.

The Coast Guard Academy Bears defeated the Crimson 29-16, while the Harvard grapplers embarrassed an undermanned team of Engineers from MIT, 50-0.

The Coast Guard, ranked fifth in New England, jumped to a strong 12-0 lead after the first round of matches. The Bears increased the lead to 24-0 before Bob Cusamano edged Don Taylor to put the seventh ranked Crimson on the scoreboard.

Winter Fishing

After Cusamano broke the ice with his victory in the 134-Ib. bout, Harvard co-captain Jim Corcoran recorded a 9-4 win at 158-Ibs. Next, Sal D'Agostino whitewashed Robert Reynolds by a 10-0 margin in the 190-Ib. event, to cut the team score to 24-10.

The last Harvard winner against Coast Guard was heavyweight Craig Beling. Beling disposed of the Bears' heavyweight with a pin at 2:58 in the match. MIT's heavyweight, John Stenard, only lasted 21 seconds against Beling, as the Crimson heavyweight recorded the fastest pin of the day.

Co-captain Jim Corcoran said Saturday, "We thought there were two or three matches they would win and two or three we would win. The rest were toss-ups and they won all of the."

D'Agostino and Cusamano were the only other Crimson grapplers besides Beling to win two matches Saturday. Cusamano recorded a major decision over Engineer Norm Hairston 10-2 and D'Agostino shut out his MIT counterpart, Bruce Wrobel 7-0. D'Agostino's record now stands at 6-1 for the season.

Tom Bixby suffered his first loss of the season in one of the close match-ups of the Coast Guard tilt. Coast Guard captain, Mickey Butler, defeated Bixby, one of Harvard's co-captains 9-4.

Ed Bordley was pinned for the first time in three years by the Guard's undefeated 177 pounder, Mark Kowalski. Bordley took his revenge against Engineer Hoyt Davidson by pinning him at 4:35 in the 177-Ib. MIT contest.

Also pinning MIT opponents were George Letsou at 126-Ibs. and Tony Pucillo at 158-Ibs. Keith Oberg and Doug Mason shut out the 142-Ib. and 150-Ib. Engineers 11-0 and 7-0 respectively.