Wrestling Tops Rider in Season's First Dual Meet

In its first dual meet of the season, the Harvard wrestling team rebounded from a slow start to seize control and managed to ride the momentum until the very end. The Crimson (1-0) won six consecutive matches to round out its first victory of the year, 25-13, over Rider (6-3) on the Broncos’ home mats.

“I knew we needed a team effort today,” coach Jay Weiss said. “One of our guys got hurt before we left for the competition, and we knew we needed people to step up, and I think we did just that.”

Seven different wrestlers recorded victories at the meet to propel Harvard to the win.

“I thought we wrestled really well as a team,” co-captain Cameron Croy said. “There are some specific things we’ve been working on, like staying aggressive, attacking, and pushing the pace of the match, and everyone did those things today on the mat. Overall, it was a great performance.”

The commanding six match winning streak was started off by freshman Tyler Grimaldi in a regular decision over Rider’s Wayne Stinson at 157 pounds. After Grimaldi outlasted his opponent, the Crimson did not drop a contest for the rest of the meet.

Both Croy and junior heavyweight David Ng managed to notch wins in the last ten seconds of their matches, outmaneuvering their opponents with little time to spare.

“Croy got a takedown in a high scoring match and built some momentum for us,” Weiss said. “As for David, we had already won the meet going into heavyweight, but it was a tight match and he fought for the win.”

Despite a number of close matches, Harvard managed to build its lead in the latter stages of the meet.

“I saw guys getting wins in the end of periods and the ends of matches, and that’s what we train for,” Weiss said. “So that was good. Our guys really pushed through, even when they were tired.”

Freshman Eric Morris contributed one such victory to the Crimson’s tally at 184 pounds, sliding past his opponent by a score of 3-2.

“Eric got a win over someone that beat him earlier in the season,” Weiss said. “You can see as a freshman he’s definitely making progress. It was a really gritty match, and I liked what I saw from him.”

Coming off last week’s appearance at the Midlands Championships, where Harvard settled for a 29th place finish, the Crimson arrived in New Jersey prepared for the beginning of the dual meet season.

“We were kind of bouncing back from Midlands after a few days of training,” Croy said.  “The dual season is a different atmosphere. You’re not competing individually; it’s all about the team points. So as a team there was a lot of excitement.”

One of the most notable performances of the meet came from sophomore Devon Gobbo, who notched a win for the squad in the 165 position. The victory marked the beginning of a personal streak for Gobbo, as he bested Rider’s nationally ranked Ramon Santiago, 6-4, for the second straight time after beating him at Midlands by just one point.

“Santiago’s an experienced wrestler, ranked 12th in the country,” Weiss said. “Devon was wrestling even better today than he was last time he beat him, which gives [Gobbo] a lot of confidence. It shows that he can compete at that high level of wrestling.”

It was the performance of junior co-captain James Fox that sealed the victory for the Crimson, as his win at 197 pounds gave Harvard a commanding, 22-13 lead. The 10-1 margin was Fox’s third major decision of the season.

The commanding sprint to the finish marked a contrast to the Crimson’s performance at the beginning of the meet. A slow start began with a Harvard forfeit at 125 pounds, which was followed by a victory from Rider’s Chuck Zeisloft at the 133 spot over sophomore Jeffrey Ott.

Harvard answered with a pin from sophomore Todd Preston at 141 pounds, kicking off the scoring for the Crimson. Just minutes later, the Broncos responded with a victory in the 149 division to seize a seven-point lead early on. But Harvard would rack up all the remaining points in the meet.

“We just want to keep the intensity coming and build on what we’ve already started,” Croy said. “We are looking for consistency from the guys that wrestled well today and to continue to go out there and make things happen.”

—Staff writer Jillian Dukes can be reached at jdukes01@college.harvard.edu.