Wrestling Wins First EIWA Crown

Cartographers of the wrestling world, take note--the Harvard Crimson is now officially on the map.

In this remarkable year of firsts for the Harvard grapplers, the Crimson took another unprecedented leap this past weekend by winning its first-ever Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA) championship.

Co-captain Matt Picarsic (133 lbs.) and junior heavyweight Dawid Rechul each claimed individual titles to rally Harvard past Penn and Lehigh, both of whom defeated the Crimson during the regular season.

Overall, eight of Harvard's ten wrestlers placed in the top six this weekend, as the Crimson finished with 123 total points.

Penn took second with 114 points while defending EIWA champ Lehigh placed third with 109.5.

"Easterns is what [co-captain] Francis [Volpe] and I, as well as the other seniors, have been focusing on since we were freshmen," Matt Picarsic said. "It's nice to be one of the elite teams now, and to have realized your goals."

Led by Rechul, the Crimson swept nearly every major award on the weekend. On his way to earning the heavyweight championship, Rechul pinned four opponents in just 19:39. For his efforts, he was named the Most Outstanding Wrestler, becoming the first heavyweight to win the award since 1940.

The Crimson also claimed the team sportsmanship award.

In his title bout, Rechul felled Brown's Bronson Lingamfelter in just 1:41. It was Rechul's fifth straight defeat of Lingamfelter in the pair's rather one-sided rivalry.

Rechul's triumph spearheaded a comeback effort that enabled the Crimson to overcome a disappointing first day of competiton. On Saturday, Harvard was stung by a pair of upsets, as sophomore sensations Max Odom (157 lbs.) and Pat O'Donnell (165) each fell to lesser-ranked opponents.

As a result, the end of competition on the first day found the Crimson occupying third place with 53.5 points, trailing Penn (62.5 points) and Lehigh (58). Heading into Sunday, Penn had eight combatants moving on the semifinals, compared to just five for Harvard.

The Crimson, however, remained confident.

"It was a slight setback, but we knew we'd be OK," Matt Picarsic said. "We thought we could bounce back by scoring some points in the consolation rounds. And that's exactly what ended up happening."

Indeed, the Crimson's depth enabled it to take advantage of a revamped scoring system that favored team-wide balance over individual success. Thus, while Penn boasted four individual champions on the weekend, Harvard was able to ride a number of strong showings to victory.

Pacing the Crimson on Sunday was freshman phenom Jesse Jantzen, who finished second in the 149-lb. class to Lehigh's Dave Esposito, and junior Kevin El-Hayik, who took third in the 125-lb. division.

Harvard also benefitted greatly from the performance of co-captain Fran Volpe (184 lbs.), who shutout his opponents in the first two rounds of competition before succumbing to Tom Tanis of Rutgers. Tanis went on to win the weight class; Volpe, meanwhile, was able to bounce back to claim third place.

And though they were eliminated from title contention before Sunday, Odom, O'Donnell and sophomore Reginald Lee (197 lbs.) all rallied in the consolation rounds. Odom placed third, while O'Donnell and Lee finished fourth and fifth respectively.

But the biggest coups were scored by Harvard's two individual champions. While Rechul had relatively little trouble taking care of the competition, Picarsic claimed his title in slightly more dramatic fashion, going to overtime against Princeton's Juan Venturi.

With the match tied at 7-7 in the waning moments of regulation, Venturi earned a takedown of Matt Picarsic to gain a late two-point edge. Picarsic, however, was able to escape, and he received the match-tying point when Venturi was whistled by the referee for stalling.

"[Venturi] had gained a lot of momentum," Picarsic said. "The call by the ref helped me out, and I was able to regroup. Overtime gave me a second life."

In the overtime, Picarsic got a takedown with just 30 seconds left to claim the 13-11 decision. Together, the victories by Picarsic and Rechul marked only the second time in the history of Harvard wrestling that the Crimson has boasted two EIWA champions in the same year.

Capping off the individual honors claimed by Harvard on the weekend, Head Coach Jay Weiss was named EIWA Coach of the Year for the second time.

"Coach Weiss has done a great job of just giving us focus, so that we peak at the right time of the year," Picarsic said. "We may have lost to Penn [last month], but we knew that the best was still to come."

Under Weiss, the wrestling program has undergone a meteoric ascent, culminating this season in the Crimson's first-ever Ivy League title and now its first EIWA crown as well.

The significance was not lost on the Harvard wrestlers this weekend.

"When [Assistant] Coach [Dustin] DeNunzio '99 was a freshman, Harvard finished 13th out of fourteen teams at Easterns," Picarsic said. "That was seven years ago."

While the EIWAs brought Harvard's team season to its conclusion, a remarkable six Crimson wrestlers have received bids to compete individually at the NCAA Championships, scheduled to start one week from Thursday at the University of Iowa.

Picarsic, Rechul, and Jantzen earned entries based on their performances this weekend, while Odom, O'Donnell and Volpe received wild-card berths.