Grapplers Edge Quakers, Earn First Ivy Victory

Rebounding from their 36-3 Friday loss to Princeton, the Harvard wrestling team Saturday night a strong University of Pennsylvania squad, 22-21, for its first Ivy League victory in two seasons.

Later in the afternoon, the Philadelphia crowd watched as the visitors from Cambridge added their thirteenth victory of the season with a 54-0 whitewashing of LaSalle College.

But the Penn match was by far the more interesting. "They're way better than last year," said Harvard head coach Johnny Lee about the Quakers, who, fresh from a 23-20 Friday drubbing of Yale, were 7-1-1 before Saturday's match-up.

The Crimson, however, proved to be more than the hosts could handle. The grapplers notched six decisions in ten attempts, including victories in the 126-lb. and Heavyweight divisions which Lee had earlier identified as "battleground" weights.

The lead seesawed throughout the match. Penn marked four points with its 13-3 decision at 118, but Harvard came back with three strong wins.

At 126, Rick Kief humbled the Quakers' Jim Hursong, 8-4, for the three-point regular decision, but Andy McNerney's 26-1 mauling of his 134-lb. Penn opponent stole the show. The Quaker's shoulder blades seemed to be flat on the mat on eight or nine occasions during the six-minute match, but the referee refused to award the fall, and McNerney had to be content with the five point superior decision.

In the 150-lb. bout, the Crimson squad took advantage of the referee's reluctance to signal a pin in Alec Montgomery's 16-3 loss to Penn's Jim Fulmer.

Sean Healey took the 158-lb. division with a 13-5 major victory but at 167, Dave Baer, in trying to preserve the Crimson lead, found himself disqualified for stalling.

Big Stick

With the score tied at 15, Tony Cimmarusti silenced his Quaker opponent, 12-5, but minutes later, Penn 190-pounder Paul Pitcher pinned Harvard's Wes Carrion.

That left it up to heavyweight Jim Phills. A takedown and near fall gave the Harvard sophomore an early 5-0 lead and he ran it up to a final 11-2 major decision that won it for the Crimson.