Jantzen, Meltzer Spark First Win for Wrestling

In its most action-packed weekend this year, the Harvard wrestling team finally picked up its first win against Princeton, but lost all three other meets in what was a bittersweet weekend for the Crimson.

The most disappointing loss of the three came against East Stroudsburg (7-6, 3-3 EIWA), which was unranked within the conference while Harvard (1-10, 1-4) is No. 6.

And against No. 18 Penn (6-6, 3-1) and EIWA-ranked No. 4 Army (6-5, 2-1) the Crimson managed just three wins, when not counting those picked up by No. 1 co-captain Jesse Jantzen (149 lbs.) and No. 14 sophomore Max Meltzer (141 lbs.).

Army 23, Harvard 17

Meltzer and Jantzen provided two of the five victories for Harvard, as the duo remained a perfect 4-0 and combined for three pins and two technical falls.

Jantzen’s match against the Black Knights’ Anthony Dunkin ended with 1:51 left in the third period when Jantzen recorded his fifth takedown of the match to seal the deal for a 17-2 technical fall. The only points Dunkin was able to record came when Jantzen allowed him to pick up two one-point escapes. In both instances, Jantzen went on to record a takedown in the next 30 seconds.

Co-captain Reggie Lee (197 lbs.), heavyweight freshman Bode Ogunwole and junior Eddie Jones (184 lbs.) provided the other victories on the night, each recording a decision over his opponent. Jones’ match was especially dramatic, as he was down 3-2 with 30 seconds left in the match. But he escaped and scored a takedown with time expiring to win the match 5-4, after Army’s Ron Schroeder was awarded an extra point at the end of the match for having over a minute worth of advantage time.

“He needed that in the worst way,” coach Jay Weiss said. “He’s been doing all the right things and things just haven’t been falling for him. He’s just going to take off with that.”

Ogunwole took Bo Reynolds to the first overtime after regulation ended in a 1-1 tie, and scored the winning takedown 29 seconds into the first extra period.

The win ended a dramatic string of matches for Ogunwole, who recently came off of the bench to fill in for junior Jonas Corl, who may not return this season after injuring his right leg in last weekend’s match against Lehigh. The team will more definitively know Corl’s status once he gets reevaluated by a doctor today.

“It’s just a testament to how good Jonas is and how much that hurts us losing him,” Lee said. “But it’s nice to have more than capable backup.”

Penn 28, Harvard 8

In one of the toughest and most evenly contested matches of the weekend, Meltzer defeated the Quaker’s No. 15 Doug McGraw—just one spot below Meltzer in the national rankings—with a 3-1 decision.

“He gets caught up in the team a little bit, and he doesn’t wrestle smart all the time when he’s wrestling later on in the meet,” coach Jay Weiss said. “That match started first, so it was good [for him]…He wrestles solid like that, and he could beat anybody.”

Jantzen won big, too, this time recording the technical fall just a few seconds into the start of the third period.

Penn’s No. 4 Matt Feast barely snuck by Ogunwole with a 4-2 decision, even though Ogunwole was wrestling in just the third match of his collegiate career.

East Stroudsburg 22, Harvard 18

Fresh off its victory over Princeton earlier in the day and down just 16-12 heading into the final three matches, Weiss saw a chance for the Crimson to pick up its second win of the day and the year, but would have to juggle his lineup in doing so.

Rather than have Jantzen wrestle at his normal 149 lbs. position, Weiss chose to wrestle him up against the Warriors’ Keith Kelckner and send sophomore Mike Baria in at the 149-lb. slot. Though Baria lost the match 6-4, Jantzen pinned his heavier opponent just over a minute into the match to bring Harvard within one at 19-18. The scoring situation meant that whichever team won the next and final match would win the meet.

Senior Brandon Kaufmann (157 lbs.) also wrestled up a weight class against East Stroudsburg’s EIWA ranked No. 5 Keith Smith in the next match. Though the score was tied at two apiece with just a few seconds remaining in regulation, Kaufmann chose to go for a seemingly desperate takedown attempt—rather than let the match go into overtime and try and win it there—and ended up having the move backfire on him as Smith managed to reverse it, win the match, and score three points for his team to secure East Stroudsburg victory.

“I think he saw that he had an opportunity there and that he needed to get it quick while the guy wasn’t paying attention, and he went for it,” Lee said. “If you’re going to lose, that’s how you should go out.”

Harvard 22, Princeton 10

Against a team that is one of the five unranked in the conference and features just two top-six wrestlers in the league, Harvard pulled off its first team victory.

The biggest win of the night came from Ogunwole who in his first college match defeated one of the Tigers’ two EIWA ranked wrestlers in No. 2 Joe Looke with a 4-3 decision. The Ogunwole victory also ended a four-match winning spurt for the Crimson that opened up the match.

Jantzen also had a big victory, pinning his opponent in just 57 seconds, the only pin or technical fall of the match.

—Staff writer Evan R. Johnson can be reached at erjohns@fas.harvard.edu.