Wrestlers Defeat Penn, 25-17; Princeton Pins Crimson, 36-3

The Harvard wrestling team won once and lost once when it traveled to New Haven, Conn. Saturday to face both Penn and Princeton. The matches, originally scheduled for this weekend at the IAB, were moved to New Haven as a result of the blizzard.

The Crimson grapplers defeated the Penn Quakers, 27-15, while the Tigers from Princeton handed the Harvard matmen their worst loss since 1974 with a decisive 36-3 victory.

Roarin' Tigers

"This is the best Ivy League dual meet team I've seen," said Harvard's coach, Johnny Lee, yesterday. The Tigers now sport an unblemished 15-0 record and should finish their dual meet season undefeated, according to Lee.

Bob Cusamanodefeated Bruce Spicer, 7-3, in the 142-lb. bout to provide Harvard with its only points of the day against the powerhouse Princeton squad.

Crimson grappler Bill Mulvihill lost a close decision to Kevin Rosch, 8-7, at 134 lbs. Mulvihill slipped once and gave away a two-point takedown to the Tigers' matman.

Jim Corcoran and Sal D'Agostino both lost by narrow margins to their Princeton opponents. Evan Kovalsky edged Corcoran, 8-6, in the 158-lb. division, and D'Agostino, who was battling the flu, lost by a score of 12-7, to Mike Sherwood. At 190-lbs., D'Agostino has beaten Sherwood twice in the past and still has a very good shot at All-Ivy honors in his weight class.

In the heavyweight bout, Harvard's Craig Beling wrestled well against last year's Eastern Champion and NCAA placewinner, John Sefter. Sefter finally managed to pin Beling late in the third period of their bout.

The Crimson rebounded from the Princeton debacle and immediately jumped out to a 12-0 lead over Penn. Ray Dominguez began by shutting out Penn's Lou Wallace at 118 lbs, 4-0, for his first victory of the season.

George Letsou pinned Mike Barnish in 2:15 of the 126-lb. class to up the Crimson lead to 9-0, before Bill Mulvihill blanked Randy Reedy, 5-0, and added three more points to the Harvard score.

Crimson co-captains Tom Bixby and Jim Corcoran avenged their earlier losses by sweeping the 150- and 158-lb. divisions. Bixby downed Jim Jones, 6-1, and Corcoran scored a major decision by whitewashing A1 Wolf, 8-0.

Sal D'Agostino put the match on ice for the Crimson when he raised his record to 9-2 with a pin against Mike D'Antonio in the 190-lb. division. D'Agostino recorded the fall at 6:20 of the third period.

In the final match of the day, Craig Beling faced an awesome challenge in the form of Penn's 270-lb. behemoth heavyweight. The bout ended in a 2-2 draw when the Quaker grappler received stalling points in the final minutes.

The grapplers continued their workouts last week despite the snowstorm. Coach Lee was not daunted by the inclement weather and walked to practice three times. Friday night, he slept in the IAB training room because the team bus was leaving early Saturday morning.