Phills Takes Eastern Crown, Wrestlers Sixth at Tourney

Harvard heavy weight wrestler Jim Phills stood someplace no Harvard wrestler has stood in 44 years. He stood at the top of the winner's platform for his weight class at the Eastern Intercollegiate Championships Saturday at Lehigh.

For Phills, the path to the top was not easy seeded third, he had to defeat the tournament's number one and two seeds, both of whom had downed Phills at last year's Eastern. In the final match against top seeded John Dougherty of Syracuse. Phills scored a tie breaking takedown with nine seconds remaining to earn a 13-11 decision. Beforehand, Phills disposed of second seed George Fears of Navy by Scoring an unexpectedly quick pin at the 1:27 mark of the match.

Now a probable top four seed at the Nationals in two weeks, Phills was understandably unavailable for comment last night.

Phills's victory overshadowed the stellar performance of 142-lb. Andy McNerney, who also earned a breath at the Nationals for the second straight year by placing second in his weight class losing only to top ranked Daryl Burley of Lehigh, who Harvard Coach Johnny Lee consider to be the "best wrestler in the East." On his way to the finals, McNerney defeated his challengers by the lopsided scores of 29-4, 13-2 and 21-2.

Overall, Harvard Placed a respectable sixth in the tournament with 46.5 points trailing fifth place Army by 3.5 points. "Placing higher than any other Ivy League school means a tremendous amount to us," Lee said referring to the Crimson's disappointing second place finish in the Ivies. Ivy-winner Cornell placed eighth.

Outside of 118-lb. Tri-Captain Paul Widerman, who placed sixth in his weight class the rest of the Harvard team was unable to score points for the Crimson in team competition. "We had no backup for Phills and McNerney," commented Lee. "But I'm thrilled with the individual efforts. You've got to get it while you can," he added. Crimson William F. Hammond