Wrestling Drops Two Straight Against Princeton, Penn

Harvard wrestling (5-4, 3-3 EIWA, 1-3 Ivy League) was unable to extend its win streak this weekend at home, dropping back to back contests to Ivy League foes Princeton and Penn at the Malkin Athletic Center. The Tigers (5-6, 4-3 EIWA, 2-0 Ivy League) and the Quakers (4-3, 4-4, 1-1) outwrestled the Crimson, 16-19 and 9-26 respectively, knocking the Crimson out of Ivy League contention.

“It was a big weekend for us going into it,” Head Coach Jay Weiss said. “We knew those teams are good, so we trained accordingly. In that first match against Princeton, our guys put us in a position to win. Our guys wrestled hard, they wrestled well and we just didn’t do enough to finish it. We had some good efforts throughout the lineup, so it was tough to be so close and not get the win there.”

PENN 9-26

Following the close loss against Princeton, the Crimson was unable to find its rhythm against the Quakers, with just three Harvard wrestlers registering wins in the match.

“Against Penn it was just different matchups not going our way,” Weiss said. “I think we wrestled better against Princeton. It’s always about progression for us, so it’s really important for us to learn from this match against Penn, and use it to our advantage.”

Co-captain Todd Preston and senior Devon Gobbo were the only two Harvard wrestlers able to finish the day undefeated, as they both notched additional wins against Penn.

“Penn is a tough team,” Preston said. “They showed up ready to wrestle, and we came out a little flat. But that’s something we can work on in the future.”

Preston wrestled second in the match, and his 3-1 decision brought the Crimson to a short-lived 3-3 deadlock with Penn, who busted the lead open in the next bout.

The third winner for the Crimson during the bout with Penn was freshman Nolan Hellickson, who rebounded from his loss against Princeton to earn a decision against Penn’s Jeremy Schwartz, 8-3.

“Even our guys that lost did a really solid job,” Weiss said. “Josh Popple wrestled a tough one, and that was a close bout. He outwrestled that kid in the last periods, so we’ve got to take some positives away from that. The big thing we have to do is make sure that we beat them when it counts.”

PRINCETON 16-19

The Crimson started the day of competition going head to head with Princeton, who Harvard has not beaten in a dual meet since 2013.

“Obviously it’s tough to go into the last bout of competition in a tie,” Weiss said. “We were right there with them, but ultimately couldn’t lock it down.”

Preston, ranked ninth in the country at the 141-weight class, established Harvard’s first lead of the day. Preston notched a major decision against Princeton’s Jordan Laster, giving Harvard the go ahead point and bringing the score to 10-9.

Princeton soon answered, as immediately following Preston’s match, co-captain Patrick Hogan was outwrestled by Princeton’s Chris Perez, 3-2, bringing Princeton to a four point lead, that proved difficult to recover from.

Senior Jeffrey Ott came through in a big way for the Crimson, pinning Princeton’s Noah Ajram at 133.

“He did a great job for us the whole day,” Weiss said. “He wrestled tough from start to finish, which was what we needed from him.”

Another standout performance came from sophomore Josef Johnson. While the sophomore lost to both his opponents of the day, Johnson wrestled his No. 16 ranked Princeton rival to an overtime period.

“I mean, that’s a top kid he’s wrestling against and he did really well,” Weiss said. “He’s finally seeing that he can compete against the best of them, and he’s just improving every week.”

The last bout of the match proved unsuccessful, as senior Michael Mocco lost by decision to Tiger Abram Ayala at 184.

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