O’Connor Continues His National Dominance

When entered into the Google Image search bar, “jp oconnor” will yield countless photos of grapplers getting floored by appropriately-named junior co-captain J.P. O’Connor.

At 5’9 and 157 pounds, O’Connor looks fairly unassuming, but he wrestles better than nearly everyone in the country.

He is currently ranked fourth in the NCAA Division I individual rankings for the 157-pound weight class, with a career record of 93-14 and a 27-2 record this season.

A native of Oxford, New York, a town 30 minutes north of Binghamton with a population of about 4,000, the standout first hit the mats at the tender age of seven.

“I’m a first generation wrestler,” O’Connor reflects.

Rather than the classic sports-beginnings story of the pot-bellied uncle with the flimsy baseball cap living vicariously through his bony nephew by tossing him in some peewee league before he can read, O’Connor actually got into wrestling another way.

His primary school gym teacher, who was also a varsity wrestling head coach, spotted some talent in the seven-year-old.

“I think he just kind of saw that I was an athletic little terror in gym class,” O’Connor recalls. “He asked me if I wanted to come to a couple varsity wrestling practices, and maybe be the manager. Me and my best friend, we were the managers; we rolled around in the corner and tried to emulate the big guys. I loved it, and the rest is history.”

By age eight, the young talent had retired as a varsity wrestling manager, and the “little terror” began dominating junior competitions throughout upstate New York.

Though he was also a great soccer player, as O’Connor developed, wrestling emerged as his calling.

“I think that I just matured, mentally and physically, and I just gradually put more time into wrestling and saw more come out of it,” O’Connor remembers.

By his senior year of high school, O’Connor was the No. 1 wrestler in the country at the 145-pound weight class.

With college scouts following him like the paparazzi on Brangelina, O’Connor was finally forced to give up soccer and decide on a school. He had a nearby Ivy in mind.

“Growing up, I was pretty committed to going to Cornell my whole life,” O’Connor recalls. “That’s 45 minutes from home. I grew up being a Big Red wrestling fan.”

He loved his Cornell visit, but out of all of his recruiting trips, one stood out in particular.

In Cambridge, O’Connor felt some sort of mysterious Crimson calling. Harvard seemed to make sense on paper, but there was something else that he couldn’t pinpoint.

“They had a great program,” he said of Harvard. “It just felt right. I made a tough decision. There was some intangible that made me feel like this is where I fit.”

Ironically, one of O’Connor’s biggest rivals is Jordan Leen, a Cornell senior currently ranked fifth in the country, who took home the 2008 NCAA championship for 157-pounders.

It is because of O’Connor’s stellar performance this season that Leen sits one position below him in the rankings.

O’Connor defeated Leen this past November at the Binghamton Brute Open, just miles from his hometown.

While O’Connor’s 7-5 overtime victory over the defending national champion was one of the best of his life, he described it quite humbly and simply: “really close match.”

O’Connor conveys this level of humility not just in casual conversation, but in wrestling spheres as well.

He bounced back from a torn MCL and partially torn ACL last season to enjoy great success this season.

He idolizes and strives to emulate fellow team members, such as co-captain Louis Caputo, an All-American currently ranked 10th in the NCAA in the 184-pound weight class.

“Incredibly hard worker, very talented, mentally strong, knows how to win,” O’Connor says of Caputo. “He works so damn hard. I aspire to be like him whenever possible.”

“J.P. is an inspiration to everyone on the team,” Caputo reciprocates. “He’s the epitome of leading by example. Athletically, he’s amazing to watch, but he’s a fantastic person on top of that. He’s the type of guy that everyone’s drawn to.”

A premed student, concentrating in Human Evolutionary Biology, O’Connor hopes to follow in the footsteps of former teammate Bode Ogunwole ’07, an NCAA heavyweight title contender in years past, who is now in medical school.

O’Connor can now describe the feeling that guided him to Harvard and that will motivate him to continued success.

“The one word that describes what Harvard wrestling has is ‘family,’” he says. “I believe that it’s different than at other schools. I really do. We bust our butts every day, together. I honestly can tell you I love every single one of my teammates. Along with working hard and being successful, I’m having a lot of fun too. Family first.”