Wrestling Readies For EIWAs

Good things come to those who wait. But great things come to those with a mission.

And so it is with Harvard's dedicated and talented wrestling team. Not a team to just sit back and wait for things to happen, the Crimson has set a standard of excellence which it continually strives to surpass.

As an example of the excellence it has achieved, the Harvard wrestlers can call themselves Ivy Champions for the first time in school history. Building on the success of recent years, this historic championship reflects the passion of a program that has come to be both respected and feared by its conference and the nation.

Since its February 3 loss to Penn, the Crimson squad has gone on to win seven consecutive meets by a combined score 241-45, including an impressive 24 pins. The highlight of this streak was a commanding 28-13 win over Cornell--the first Crimson victory over the Big Red in seventeen years.

Harvard then sealed a share of the Ivy title with a win over Brown in its final weekend at home. Harvard shares the title with both Penn and Cornell, by virtue of the results of the dual meet season--Harvard beat Cornell, Cornell beat Penn, but Penn beat Harvard.

"I am extremely proud of what our wrestlers have accomplished," said Head Coach Jay Weiss. "It was a terrific team effort, and it epitomizes the tremendous work ethic that these guys share."

With a tough tournament schedule earlier in the season, in which the Crimson was a formidable foe against some of the best teams in the nation (including Iowa State, Oklahoma, and Nebraska), Harvard entered the dual meet season ready for action.

"I think that competing in Dallas at the Lone Star Duals against top notch competition made everyone realize that we were more than capable of beating the top teams in our conference," said co-captain Matt Picarsic.

As it turned out, this team was more than ready to take on the conference.

A share of the Ivy title was an appropriate ending to a remarkable dual meet season, especially for the core of seniors--co-captains Matt Picarsic and Fran Volpe, Adam Truitt, and David Dinin--who have been instrumental in the program's overwhelming success over the past few years.

"These seniors are great leaders," Weiss said. "Their passion for the program has really come through and has set the tone for the team."

Although the win over Cornell was a big step towards the Ivy title, the Crimson could not afford to overlook Brown, as a victory over the Bears was needed for a claim to the championship. With a decisive 30-7 win over Brown, Harvard showed it was a team on a mission.

The highlight of the meet came at heavyweight where a Herculean effort by junior Dawid Rechul gave him a 4-3 victory over Bronson Lingamfelter, one of the top wrestlers in the conference. Freshmen Jesse Jantzen and Brandon Kauffman completely dominated their competition, earning a pair of major decisions at 149-pounds and 157-pounds respectively.

Sophomore Pat O'Donnell (165-pounds) picked up where his teammates left off, pinning his opponent 3:25 into the match. Truitt (174-pounds) and junior Kevin El-Hayek (125-pounds) also contributed to the Crimson cause, taking down their foes 3-2 and 9-0 respectivley. At 133-pounds, Matt Picarsic, sealed the win-and the Ivy title-by pinning his opponent at 2:40.

Later that afternoon, in the last battle of the dual meet season, Harvard soundly defeated Boston University 32-4. In the most exciting match of the meet, Truitt capped off his illustrious Harvard career by reversing his opponent in the last seconds of the match to pull out a 3-2 win. The win was all the more impressive because Truitt bumped up to wrestle at 184-pounds, filling in for Volpe who did not wrestle against Brown or BU.

At 149-pounds, in a highly anticipated match-up, Jantzen easily handled top wrestler Malik Elliot, ranked in the top fifteen in the country. Jantzen won 5-3, and was completely in control the entire match.

Sophomore Reggie Lee also had a standout performance, outwrestling his opponent 6-2 at 197-pounds. Sophomore Nick Picarsic put in a great effort at 141-pounds, getting a pin at 2:59 while O'Donnell added the other, earning his fall at 3:10. Sophomore Max Odom (157-pounds), freshman PJ Jones (174-pounds), and Picarsic (133-pounds) also turned in solid victories for the Crimson.

However, despite the excitement of sharing the Ivy title, the Crimson now gets ready for the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA) Tournament--the most important contest of the season.

"Though it was great to win the elusive Ivy title--something no Harvard team has every done--our team has been focused on the Eastern tournament since the beginning of the year,"Picarsic said. "So maybe more importantly, winning the Ivy title, not to mention our last seven dual meets, has given us a big confidence boost heading into Easterns."

The Crimson will head to the University of Pennsylvania this weekend, setting its sights on another championship as well as multiple NCAA berths. The top two winners in each weight class plus ten wildcards earn the highly coveted spots to the NCAA tournament in mid-March.

And if one thing is clear from the current EIWA picture and the outcome of the dual meet season, it is that the title is definitely up for grabs. Such is the case since Lehigh has lost two of its best starters to injury.

"Going into this weekend, we have as good of a chance as anyone else in the conference of winning the EIWA Championship," said Volpe. "We have definitely been going in the right direction the past couple months. This is the time of year that we always try to peak for, so we should be well rested, healed and at our best this weekend."

Harvard, currently ranked No. 2 in the EIWA, is poised to make its mark. It is ranked behind Penn, and ahead of Lehigh and Cornell, respectively. Eight members of the Crimson line-up are ranked in the top six of their respective weight classes. Matt Picarsic, on the heels of a phenomenal season, is ranked at the top of the 133-pound weight class.

El-Hayek (125-pounds), Jantzen (149-pounds), Volpe (184-pounds), and Rechul (heavyweight) rank second. Odom is ranked third at 157-pounds, O'Donnell fourth at 165-pounds, and Lee sixth at 197-pounds.

So while the Crimson has much to be proud of with its claim to the Ivy title, the season is still far from over as the tournaments of March draw near.

"I have never been on a team that was more ready and I have never been more prepared,"Volpe said. "Good things are going to happen."

Indeed, the history books are still open.