Pickett's Matmen In Last Charge

Harvard's wrestling team enters its last dual meet under Coach Bob Pickett on Saturday at the IAB, hoping to salvage a disappointing season with a win over Yale.

Harvard, a team many thought would challenge again this year for the Ivy wrestling championship, has been hit this season with illness and injury, and won its first Ivy victory only last Saturday against Brown, 17-15.

Don Nayler, last year's sophomore star at 130, was hit by knee and groin injuries early in the season, became dispirited, and has withdrawn from the team. Howie Freedman, undefeated last year at 177 and 191, contracted mononucleosis soon after Christmas and was lost for the season.

Sophomore Jim Abbott and junior Bob Panoff have both just recently recovered from injuries that crippled their performances in the crucial Cornell and Penn meets early in the season. Captain Andy Kopecki entered the hospital for a sudden appendectomy the morning of last week's Rutgers meet and is through for the year. That's been the wrestling team's year this year.

Lineup

Against Yale on Saturday, Pickett has scheduled Jon Moss in Kopecki's 123 slot, Mike Morris in Naylor's 130 slot, sophomores Paul Catinella and Jeff Seder in the 137 and 145 divisions, senior Dave Stern at 152, Dick Low at 160, Howie Chatterton at 167, and Paul Padlak at 177, Abbott at 191 and Panoff at Heavyweight.

Chatterton, at 167, will probably face Yale's star, Tom McEwan, who is 8-0-1 on the season. Low and Moss will also face challenges against Yale's Ken Haltenoff and Don Joseph, respectively.

In comparative meets, Yale has beaten Columbia, a team that edged Harvard by one point. They have both beaten Brown and lost to the other Ivies. Harvard can win with a strategic pin and perhaps one "unexpected" decision or tie.