Jantzen Places First in Las Vegas

Even in Las Vegas, Jesse Jantzen was the surest bet in town.

Currently ranked No. 8 in the country, the Harvard sophomore wrestler won the 149-pound weight class at this weekend’s Cliff Keen Invitational in Las Vegas.

Jantzen shut out West Virginia’s Billy Smith in the finals, 6-0 and has now won his last three tournaments.

Harvard had another ace up its sleeve in co-captain Dawid Rechul, who finished fourth in the heavyweight class after losing to eventual champion Kevin Hoy of Airforce, 7-3 in the semi-finals and 5-3 to Wyoming’s Brad Steele in the consolations.

Rechul is currently ranked 12th in the country in the top weigfht division.

In other individual efforts, Juniors Reggie Lee (184 lbs.) and Pat O’Donell (165 lbs.) both lost in the second round.

Overall, Harvard finished 13th in a field of 20 with 59 points.

Michigan, West Virginia and Lehigh took the top three spots.

Janzten’s route to the finals was relatively smooth. He pinned his first round opponent in 40 seconds, and then pinned Jordan Barich of Oregon State in the second round after 2:38.

He crushed LeHigh’s Mike Pirozzola 9-1 in the quarters and decisively defeated ASU’s Eric Larkin in the semis, 8-4. Larkin is the No. 1 ranked wrestler in the nation at 141 lbs.

Down 4-2 to Larkin going in to the second period, Jantzen never lost his poise. Larkin chose the bottom position, playing right into Jantzen’s hands. Jantzen turned Larkin twice before the match was over for the 8-4 win.

In the finals, Jantzen was in total control as Smith did not come close to scoring.

“He’s just head and shoulders above his opponents,” Harvard Coach Jay Weiss said.

Jantzen allowed only five points all tournament. He is now a perfect 14-0 this season, and Weiss beleives Jantzen should be ranked about fourth or fifth in the nation.

Rechul’s trip to the city of sin was more disappointing.

“I beat [Hoy] in the nationals last year,” Rechul said. “I broke mentally—there was a lot of pressure on me.”

Rechul went down four points early and was forced to play catch up.

In the consolation, Rechul gave up two points with 10 seconds left in the first period and was once again forced to come from behind. Although he was able to bring down Steele in the subsequent round, it was too little, too late.

Despite the losses, Rechul had some good matches, including a 9-7 win over No. 8 Eric Webb of Oregon in the quarters, and No. 12 ranking will likely remain unchanged.

“I’m not completely dissatisfied,” Rechul said. “I have some clear cut things that I have to work on.”

Rechul’s losses can once again be attributed to his own mistakes, not to the strengths of his opponents.

“Sometimes I wish there was a guy who could really beat me up, so I could say, ‘He’s better than me,’” Rechul said. “It’s frustrating losing to guys you know you can beat.”

Weiss hinted that Rechul’s performance may be a blessing in disguise.

“It’s a good wake up call,” Weiss said. “We have to work on getting the lead early, because it’s hard to play catch up in college.”

O’Donnell got a bit a wake up call himself in his second-round match.

Leading 2-0 going into the final eight seconds of the match, O’Donnell was taken down in a fluky move by Arizona State University’s Nick Frost. Frost won 3-2 in match almost entirely controlled by O’Donnell.

“It was a perfect example of how you have to keep working for the whole match,” Rechul said.

Instead of being conservative, O’Donnell tried to score more points at the match’s end and got burned.

“The tables didn’t turn his way,” Rechul said.

Weiss was pleased with Lee’s performance.

“He wrestled well—he knows what he has to do to improve,” he said.

Weiss was also pleased with the performance of two freshmen wrestlers, Joe Turilli (141 lbs.) and Jonas Corl (197 lbs.).

Both wrestled hard and gained invaluable experience.

“This tournament can be pretty overwhelming for freshmen,” Weiss said. “They learnt what college wrestling is all about.”

Turrilli was particularly impressive.

“He fights with the heart of a lion,” Rechul said.

Rechul also pointed to junior Robbie Griffin’s gutsy performance as evidence of the character of the Harvard wrestling team.

“We definetely got better this weekend,” Weiss said. “We’ve gotta push it right now, because we face No. 2 Oklahoma and No. 3 Oklahoma State after Christmas, back to back.”

The Crimson’s next team tournament will be the Wilkes Open on December 28.

Jantzen, Rechul, O’Donnell and senior 197-pounder Brad Soltis, who is coming off of an injury, will compete in the Midland tournament at Northwetsern on the same weekend.