Wrestlers Drop Season Finale To Yale; Starr Captures Freshman Eastern Title

A disabling rib injury to Dean Sheppard and a loss by Jim Abbott at unlimited proved fatal Saturday afternoon in the IAB as the Harvard wrestling team lost a 21-14 decision to Yale.

The defeat dropped the Crimson to fifth place in the Ivy League and capped a rather dismal 3-10-1 season.

An encouraging note came from West Point. however, where Richie Starr became the first Harvard freshman in 12 years to win an Eastern title. Starr edged John Rhinehart of Lehigh, 3-2, to claim the 177-pound championship.

Crimson Had Lead

In the varsity home finale, the Crimson matmen were leading. 9-5 when Sheppard came up against Eli Captain Chris Legg. The bout was tied. 0-0, at the end of the first period, but as Sheppard tried to escape Legg's second period advantage. he aggravated a bruised rib.

After regaining his breath during a two-minute timeout. Sheppard asked to continue. He had trouble breathing, however, and in one painfull roll, was pinned after 47 seconds of the second period.

This break put Yale ahead to stay. 10-9, and a 4-2 loss by Mike Slutzker at 158 padded the Eli bulge. It was ruled that Slutzker did not have control on an apparent takedown with ten seconds left in the bout, and Al Gaby escaped with a narrow, but all important, victory.

Tony Rayner kept the Crimson within striking distance with a tie against Ron Lindsay at 190 but with the score standing 18-14, Harvard needed a pin from Abbott to salvage its sixth win of the season.

Abbott Lacked Mobility

Wrestling in his last bout at Harvard. Abbott simply did not have the mobility necessary to upend Matt Jordan, and trailing all the way, lost a disheartening 6-3 decision.

Tom Schnorr and captain Paul Catinella climaxed their home careers at Harvard with victories that gave the Crimson the early lead. Schnorr blitzed John Eure at 118. 8-0, in his best bout of the season. while Catinella scored a takedown with 20 seconds left to nip Yamashita. 4-3 at 134.

Juniors Mark Faller and Pat Coleman were the other Harvard winners, but neither wrestled particularly well in 5-4 and 8-4 decisions. Coleman, in fact needed two points of riding time to edge Terry Brown by a single point.

Harvard coach John Lee took the defeat in stride. "We've been nipped all year, so I guess it's fitting that the season end this way.

But Lee was obviously pleased by Starr's performance in the freshman East-for us." he said Starr defeated Lehigh's Rhinehart by the same score last year to win the New Jersey state title.

His Yardling teammates. Bill Stewart and Tony Dubon, lost narrow 5-3 and 8-7 decisions at 150 and 167 to finish third in their divisions. With John Peters (142) and Frank Morgan (158) making it to the quarterfinals, the Yardlings had their best showing ever in the Easterns.

The rest of the freshman team had no trouble with a weak Yale freshman squad and the Yardlines 33-13 victory closed out a 103 season.