Phills Drops Opponents at Nationals; McNerney Loses in Early Competition

Long after most members of the Harvard wrestling team had hung up their shoes to enjoy the off season, two members of the best team in Harvard's history, 142 lb Andy McNerney and heavy weight Jim Phills, have traveled to the National Collegiate Wrestling Championships in Ames, Iowa.

Andy McNerney lost in the opening round at 142 lbs yesterday, but heavy weight Jim Phills has been wowing the crowds with his quickness and some new found aggressiveness on the mat.

Despite being perhaps the smallest heavyweight in the field. Phills is the tournament pin leader with two falls in a total of 2.30. He had had six small problems at the Eastern Championships when he wrestled tentatively, instead of attacking, but at the nationals has already barrelled into the quarter finals with two wins.

He's not hanging back," Coach Johnny Lee said last night from Iowa State University. "He's really wrestling well."

In his first match, Phills pinned sixth-seeded Ray Wagner of Kent State in 1.48 Wagner weighs in at about 280 lbs, and placed fourth nationally in the weight class last year. But Phills relied on quickness to dominate his opponent from the start.

In the second preliminary before the quarter finals, Phills pinned Chris Bielenberg from Oregon St. in 42 seconds, giving him the lead in that category Phills' work will be cut out for him tomorrow, when he faces larger, even more talented opponents. But Lee said he is optimistic about Phills' chances.

McNerney's day started on the right note, when the Harvard junior pinned Mejoe Hernandez from Washington St. in 6:20 in the pre-tourney round. In his next match, however, McNerney suffered the biggest disappointment of his wrestling career, losing in overtime to Ken Gallagher from Northern Iowa, 4-3.

The loss was particularly upsetting because it came on a highly controversial call.

McNerney was winning 3-2 in the overtime with seconds remaining, when the referee scored a two-point takedown from Gallagher--a call that many later said should have gone the other way.