Hobbled Crimson, Missing Wrestlers, Battles Terriers to a Tie

Injuries continued to take a toll on the wounded Crimson wrestling team yesterday against Boston University.

In action at the Malkin Athletic Center for its third match in a six-match home stand, Harvard had to cope with the lack of freshman Corey Jantzen, junior Andrew Flanagan, and senior co-captain Robbie Preston due to injury.

Unable to field anyone for the 133 lb. and 144 lb. weight classes, the Crimson faced a 12-point disadvantage from the onset of the match but came back to end the meet on a tie with the Terriers at 21 all.

“The team has been plagued the whole year with injuries,” Preston said. “Everyone knows they have to wrestle their best and we just have to deal with what we have.”

Despite the gloomy outlook of being short-handed, Harvard came out of the gates motivated to make up for their early deficit.

Sophomore J.P. O’Connor, the third ranked wrestler in the nation at the 149 lb. weight class, kicked off the meet against No. 20 Mike Roberts.

The duo grappled in an intense match, with O’Connor getting the nod 3-2 over Roberts with a crucial penalty point. The victory improved O’Connor’s record to 16-1.

Veteran leadership built upon O’Connor’s early win, as seniors Bobby Latessa (157) and Matt Button (165) each won their bouts respectively, 3-1 and 8-5.

BU’s A.J. Detwiler (174) temporarily stopped the Crimson’s early momentum, but Harvard answered back with a resounding defeat in the 184 lb. class. Sophomore Fred Rowsey scored a crucial 10-pointer with a pin of his opponent to put the Crimson back in the lead at 15-10.

“Obviously Fred stepped up in a huge way,” O’Connor said. “He’s moved up in weight class, he got a big win last weekend, and he pumped everyone up today. We really need these guys to step up and go out there and fight.”

At the 197 lb. weight class, senior Jonathan Butler was dealt an agonizing blow, losing the boat in overtime. During regulation, it appeared that Butler had managed to snatch a takedown in the last few seconds of the match but time was called before the points could register on the scoreboard.

Butler’s opponent did suffer a setback, incurring a one-point penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct. The penalty would come back to haunt the Terriers with the final score line reading 21 apiece for both teams.

“Whenever you have really close matches, you see the referee play a bigger role,” O’Connor said. “But the referee didn’t win or lose any of the matches for us. All the blame should be on us,” he added.

“It all comes back to us not extending our lead and putting ourselves in position to have the match come down to the referee,” he added.

After going through another meet short-handed, the team hopes to get back some of its key guys for the next few home fixtures, as Harvard has an Ivy-slate of Penn and Princeton on the horizon.

Regardless of external circumstances, the Crimson has shown considerable resiliency throughout its 2008 campaign, and the addition of newly healed wrestlers will help to boost the team’s morale for the last stretch of the season.

“We started off the year knowing we were going to face adversity,” O’Connor said. “It’s really in how you come out of that adversity that you define yourself, and some of that adversity we’re facing now is only going to make us stronger,” he added.

—Staff writer Mauricio A. Cruz can be reached at cruz2@fas.harvard.edu.