Matmen Pin Lowell, MIT, Drop One to Coast Guard

Harvard's wrestling team came away with mixed results in Saturday's triple meet as they bested MIT, 27-12, and Lowell, 35-6, but suffered a heartbreaking loss to the Coast Guard, 22-18, at the IAB.

The grapplers had no trouble over-coming both MIT and Lowell and had expected to beat Coast Guard. Harvard's defeat was especially disappointing because the Crimson led until the end.

It all came down to the last match, a match that Coach Johnny Lee was "99 per cent sure of winning." With Harvard leading the Coast Guard 18-16, and only heavyweight co-captain Craig Beling left to wrestle, Lee had every reason to be optimistic. But Coast Guard wrestled away the victory when Craig Sattergrin unexpectedly pinned Beling.

Heartache

Co-captain Bill Mulvihill, who watched the contest from the sideline because of his shoulder injury, said after the match, "It's a disheartening loss for us. We were so close yet so far away, but we are not making any excuses."

In the 118-1b. class, freshman sensation Paul Wiederman was his usual impressive self and continued to delight the crowd, posting victories in all his matches. Wiederman pinned Coast Guard's Matt Thomas and downed his MIT adversary, 10-2. He won over his Lowell opponent, who had been shaken up in a car accident earlier, by forfeit.

Rick Kief (126 1bs.), who has suffered from a bad ankle since the season began, returned to the line-up and turned in an amazing performance. Kief registered a pin over the Engineer's Charlie Sweet and did not surrender a single point in his two other matches.

With Mulvihill injured, freshman Bryan Baer, took over the 134 1bs. class and triumphed over MIT 12-0, but lost to Coast Guard, 10-4. In the Lowell match, the Crimson's Ray Cooper fell by the score of 4-1.

Keith Oberg (142 1bs.) lost to Coast Guard's Rick Burt, 4-2, but David Baer, also wrestling at 142 1bs., garnered two wins against MIT and Lowell.

Harvard's Jon Franklin (150 1bs.) notched two victories and a draw. The draw came against Coast Guard's Mark Yost when with 6 seconds to go in the bout and Franklin ahead by 2 points, Yost reversed him to tie the score at 8-8. Franklin had mistakenly thought that he was ahead by 3 points at the time.

Lee's strategy of saving his best wrestlers for the match against the stronger Coast Guard team worked well as the Crimson's Doug Mason picked up two wins in different weight classes.

Mason blanked Lowell matman Rich McLarney, 15-0, in the 158-1bs. class and then flattened Coast Guard's Steve Metrick, 15-4, in the 167-1bs. class.

Fought Back

Freshman Marc Cooley, whom Mulvihill referred to as "the man to watch", came from behind to nip his Lowell counterpart, 10-9. In the other 190-1bs. bout against Coast Guard, John Williams wrestled aggressively to win, 10-8.

After losing his first match, Beling came back to pin Lowell's Dave Gagnon at 4:35, and he also gained a forfeit from the Engineers.