Preston, Gobbo, Gajdzik Finish First in Wrestling's Final Action of 2015

Four tournaments, four top-10 finishes for Harvard wrestling co-captain Todd Preston, senior Devon Gobbo, and junior Nick Gajdzik. And this time, none were to be denied gold.

The Crimson ended 2015 on a high note, with Preston, Gobbo, and Gajdzik capturing first place finishes in their respective weight classes at the Franklin & Marshall Open in Lancaster, Penn. All three wrestlers have placed in every tournament this year, but this is the first at which any Harvard participant won.

“It’s honestly a learning curve,” Preston said. “Throughout the year, it’s a six-month season. You pick a lot along the way. I think that’s a testament to how far we’ve come this season. We started off strong. We’ve been placing guys in every single tournament in some of the toughest parts of the country.”

Preston, a senior out of Hampton, N.J., added to his team-high career win total. Competing at 141 lbs., Preston won all five of his bouts. The senior now has 16 wins on the season, tied for the most with Gajdzik, and 68 in his career. He had three pins in the opening rounds before picking up a 12-4 major decision against third-place finisher Adam Whitesell of Maryland in the semifinal. Preston went on to win a 10-1 major decision against Air Force’s Lyle Plummer in the final.

After making it to the semifinal of the season’s first tournament, the Binghamton Open, Preston went on to rack up second and sixth place finishes in other contests this season. He is ranked 10th nationally, the highest EIWA wrestler at 141.

“[Preston] is an awesome, awesome leader,” Gajdzik said. “For me, something I grew up with was leaders should always lead by example. You follow someone because they’re somebody you aspire to be like, and Todd fits that definition to an absolute T. You ask somebody who is the hardest working guy in the room, it’s Todd.”

Gajdzik, the team’s lone heavyweight participant, captured the title by earning a fall against Christian Colucci of Lehigh in 2:01. The junior started with a 7-1 decision against Millersville’s David Wuestner before knocking off host Franklin and Marshall’s Andrew Pelusi and Navy’s Thomas Ott.

In a six minute and 50 second-long match, Gobbo pinned Austin Rose of Drexel University to also win first place. Gobbo is ranked 20th nationally at 165, the second-highest rank for an EIWA wrestler. Gobbo has the second most wins on the team with 13 and boasts a career total of 40 victories.

“[Gajdzik and Gobbo are] very good wrestlers, great leaders on the team, and that’s what they did yesterday. They stepped up big and they got first place,” Preston said. “That’s exactly what we want them to do, especially in front of the younger guys. We have high goals. We want to be a top-15 team, and in order to do that, we have to be placing guys and having chances at almost every single tournament.”

Nine other Harvard wrestlers placed in the top four at the tournament. Junior Jeffrey Ott at 133, sophomore Tyler Tarsi at 157, sophomore Josef Johnson at 174, and senior Michael Mocco at 184 captured second-place finishes in their weight classes. Freshman Ryan Friedman at 133 and sophomore Logan Kirby at 184 took home third-place finishes, while freshman Nolan Hellickson at 125 and senior Patrick Hogan at 149 each finished fourth.

This was the first of seven team matches over the course of the break. While most other students are at home or on vacation, the wrestling team is back in Cambridge.

“We had an excellent preseason, and from there, that just kind of set the tone throughout for how the entire season has been,” Gajdzik said. “We’ve all been working as hard as possible, and we really can start to see those results coming to fruition now in the tournament like the one we just had.”

—Staff writer Wade G. Player can be reached at wplayer@college.harvard.edu.