WEB UPDATE: Caputo Named All-American at NCAAs, O'Connor and Jantzen Falter

Three Crimson wrestlers traveled to St. Louis, Mo. for the NCAA championships this past weekend and one proved more at home than the rest. Junior co-captain Louis Caputo took advantage of a supportive atmosphere in his native “Show Me State” to outwrestle his seed and claim All-American honors for the second time in his career.

The third-year grappler joined fellow junior co-captain J.P. O’Connor and sophomore Corey Jantzen as Harvard’s national championship representatives, but enjoyed by far the most successful tournament.

“I think Louis wrestled better than he ever has at Harvard,” Crimson coach Jay Weiss said. “I was really proud of the way he [competed].”

After spending his sophomore season sidelined with an injury, Caputo capped a healthy junior season with a stellar overall performance. The grappler entered the championships as the 11th seed, upsetting sixth-seeded Joshua Patterson of Binghamton before facing off against Purdue’s A.J. Kessel in the round of 12. This pivotal round distilled competitors into six All-Americans and six grapplers who return home without hardware. Fortunately for Caputo, he was up to the challenge, besting Kessel 2-1 to advance and extend the Crimson’s streak of honoring an All-American to four straight years.

“I’m really proud of [Caputo] for coming back from injury and wrestling better than his seed,” O’Connor said. “It’s just awesome; he’s a great wrestler and a great competitor.”

Despite the impressive run, Caputo could not top all of the vaunted wrestlers in the 184 lbs. weight class. The Harvard junior fell to defending national champion Mike Pucillo of Ohio State in the quarterfinals.

Dispatched to the consolation round, Caputo found himself face-to-face with growing nemesis Phil Keddy from Iowa. Caputo dropped two bouts this season to Keddy and NCAA’s brought a familiar result. Caputo suffered a heartbreaking 2-0 defeat, sending him to the seventh place bout, where he fell in a rematch with Patterson. But considering the difficulty of earning All-American honors in the wake of a devastating injury, Caputo expressed enthusiasm for the result.

“I’m actually very happy,” he said. “Last year was disappointing and I’m glad I haven’t lost too much ground. [Coming back from injury] is mostly mental and I’m glad I still have that edge.”

O’Connor and Jantzen did not fare as well. Attempting to return as an All-American at 157 after placing sixth last year at 149, O’Connor entered the tournament hopeful as the fourth seed. Unfortunately for the junior star, NCAA’s proved full of surprises. Considering the first round bid goodbye to 19 seeded wrestlers, O’Connor’s path to the round of 12 already marked a successful weekend. But the Harvard co-captain endured a frustrating 1-0 loss to Edinboro’s Greg Gillespie—a grappler he defeated twice this season—a decision that denied O’Connor All-American standing.

“I’m incredibly disappointed,” a disconsolate O’Connor said. “It’s probably one of my worst performances…I felt like I didn’t show up with my best and when you go into a tournament like that you have to show up every match.”

O’Connor could not recover in his consolation bout, falling 2-1 to Chase Pami of Cal Poly. The Crimson wrestler led 1-0 entering the third frame, but gave up a reversal and relinquished his riding advantage, dropping the bout and leaving the standout looking for an explanation.

“I don’t know what the answers are,” he said. “Obviously there were opportunities I didn’t take advantage of, but I guess it’s back to the drawing board.”

Despite O’Connor’s setback, Weiss put the difficult competition in perspective, insisting that his grappler’s effort was not without merit.

“That [157 lbs.] weight class was ridiculously hard,” Weiss said. “Going for third and fourth were two former national champions, that’s how difficult it was.”

The Crimson’s final competitor faced the hardest tournament of all, bowing out before he really got started. In Jantzen’s first bout, his opponent pulled around him in a takedown attempt as the sophomore’s ankle got caught in the mat. Jantzen had nursed a bad ankle throughout the season and this final twist proved too much for the joint to bear.

As the Harvard grappler fell to the mat, he not only suffered a match-ending pin, but was also forced to medically forfeit his consolation bout.

While two of the Crimson’s elite competitors expressed dissatisfaction with their season-ending performances, all three nationally-ranked wrestlers will return for Harvard in the fall, heading a talented squad and harboring ambitions of making another run at national titles.