Wrestling Sweeps Roger Williams and Brown Over the Weekend

The Crimson (7-4) bounced back from two tough losses last weekend to restart its winning streak, topping Brown and Roger Williams, 25-10 and 38-3, respectively, on the Bears’ home turf.

“I think yesterday was a great way for us to get back on track,” sophomore Josef Johnson said. “Last week we wrestled really well but came up short. It was really good for our confidence to be able to bounce back after that and to get some momentum back as we look to close out the season.”

HARVARD 38, ROGER WILLIAMS 3

The Crimson broke the match open early against Roger Williams, eventually finishing the victory with a score of 38-3. Four different Crimson wrestlers notched major decisions, while Preston, Gobbo and senior Jeffrey Ott notched a pin and two technical falls, respectively.

“I felt a little bit conservative in my first match,” Gobbo said. “So I really tried to open up in my second match, which worked for me pretty well since I was able to get that [technical] fall.”

Senior Patrick Hogan bounced back from a loss earlier in the day against Brown to grab a major decision against Carter Merecki. With this 9-0 win, the senior extended the Crimson’s lead 18-3.

The only win for Roger Williams against the Crimson came at the heavyweight position, as Adam Patsun won by decision against Cowell. The bout was tightly contested for a final score of 2-1.

“After losing last week, we made an active effort in practice to just ramp up the intensity,” Johnson said. “And I think you could really see the difference it made especially in this match. Our guys bumped up the intensity and were really aggressive in general.”

HARVARD 25, BROWN 10

The deciding factor of the match came from No .19 Devon Gobbo’s performance. The Bears were creeping back into contention up until that time, but the senior managed to silence the home team, as he notched the win at 165, 7-2.

“[Devon] really stood out yesterday,” Johnson said. “We saw him taking risks and opening the match up. It’s a beautiful thing when Devon is wrestling at 100 percent, and you could really see that he wasn’t afraid of anything.”

No.9 ranked captain Todd Preston continued his solid performance from last weekend on the mat, notching a major decision, 18-4, against Brown’s Charles Banazcak at 144 lbs.

“Todd just did what he does,” Johnson said. “He really turned the heat up, and brought a ton of intensity yesterday. When Todd lets loose on a match like that, it’s really only a matter of time until his opponent breaks.”

The Crimson had a shaky start to the meet, as sophomore Angus Cowell dropped the first match of the meet to Brown’s Joshua Durso-Finley, putting Harvard down 3-0 at the start. Freshman Nolan Hellickson quickly responded, putting Harvard on the board and knotting the team score at 3-3.

“I think Nolan is really coming into his own,” Johnson said. “One of the things that the coaches have been stressing this year is wrestling aggressively from the top position, and Nolan has been able to open up on matches by doing that. He’s trusting his offense, taking shots, and just taking direction really well. It’s great to have a reliable guy like him in the lineup.”

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