Wrestling Takes 29th at Midlands Championships

There was only one Harvard wrestler left standing at the end of Sunday night’s session of the 51st Annual Ken Kraft Midlands Championships at Northwestern University. When the competition finished Monday evening, no Crimson wrestler had taken a spot on the podium. Harvard's team of eight finished the tournament 29th out of 47 college teams, scoring 12 points overall.

The last Harvard wrestler left standing was sophomore Devon Gobbo in the 165 lb weight class. After dropping his opening match to Purdue’s Chad Welch at 4:23, Gobbo won face-offs against Minnesota’s Nick Wanzek and Rider’s Ramon Santiago, 13-3 and 9-6, respectively.

In the quarterfinal match against Wisconsin’s Frank Cousins, Gobbo came out strong despite aggravating a knee injury during the first frame of action. After Cousins cut Gobbo's initial 3-0 lead to one point, the Harvard sophomore responded with five straight and closed out the match, 8-3, to move on to Monday’s session.

On Monday, Gobbo could not keep his win streak alive and fell to Josh Houldsworth of Columbia, 4-3. With Gobbo’s loss, the Crimson was officially out of the tournament.

“Right now everybody’s hurt and banged out, but all I ask is that the guys come out and fight,” Weiss said. “[Gobbo] is very talented, and he could beat a lot of people here.”

Freshman Tyler Grimaldi wrestled at 157 lbs and found a first round victory over Northwestern’s Dylan Marriott, 6-2, before losing to Isaac Jordan of Wisconsin, 12-3. Franklin and Marshall's Andrew Murano eliminated Grimaldi in the consolation bracket, 8-6.

“This was not my best showing, but I know what I need to work on and where I need to be going into practice for the rest of the year,” Grimaldi said. “As a team we’re on the brink of getting to the next level, and we really trust in our coaching to get us there.”

The only other Harvard wrestler to win his first round match-up was sophomore Todd Preston, who beat Ryan Fillingame of Adams State, 6-5, at 141 lbs. Preston then dropped a contest to Iowa’s Josh Dziewa, 8-4, to fall into the consolation bracket.

Preston went on to beat Shyheim Brown of Maryland, 4-0, but was eliminated in the quarterfinals of the second session with a 10-7 overtime loss to Wisconsin’s Jesse Thielke. Tied at six going into the fourth extra frame of the match, Preston quickly found himself down 10-6 after the whistle. The Crimson sophomore was able to fend off Thielke’s pin and score a point, but could not convert again.

“This is such a tough tournament…at this level of competition,” coach Jay Weiss said. “I think [the Harvard wrestlers] are ready and the other coaches think they’re ready, but they aren’t wrestling to that level yet. We are going to use this tournament as a stepping stone into the next phase of the season to push the guys to be better.”

Senior co-captain Cameron Croy went up against Jimmy Sheptock of Maryland, who was ranked second in the 184 lb weight class, in the first round match and fell, 6-1. Croy was then able to beat Peinceton’s Scott Gibbons, 5-2, before dropping his final contest to Kurt Julson of North Dakota State, 4-2.

Freshman Eric Morris dropped his first match against Wisconsin’s Scott Liegel, 9-7, before recording a win over Jimmie Schuessler of Grand View, 11-2. Morris withdrew from his next match against Brown’s Ricky McDonald due to illness.

In the 133 lb weight class, sophomore Jeff Ott dropped consecutive matches to Michigan’s Rossi Bruno and Northwestern’s Dom Malone, 11-4 and 8-5, respectively.

After falling to Virginia Tech’s Nick Brascetta, 19-5, in the opening match, junior 157-pounder Paul Liguori was able to pick up a victory against Northwestern’s David Helmer, 4-2, before losing , 13-3, to Illinois’ Zac Brunson.

Heavyweight Nick Gajdzik lost at 4:07 to Michigan’s Adam Coon in his opening match on Sunday. In the consolation bracket, the Harvard sophomore beat Princeton’s Ray O’Donnell, 8-3, before ending his night with a loss to Ty Walz of Virginia Tech. Down 5-4 with ten seconds left on the clock, Gajdzik pushed Walz to the last second of the match but could not come up with a point.

“Going into this level of competition, there’s no way you can’t come out of here with more maturity because it kind of wakes you up,” Weiss said. “I think some guys, even in losses…can stay competitive with the best wrestlers out there.”

--Staff writer Ariel Smolik-Valles can be reached at asmolikvalles@college.harvard.edu