Jay Galeski's Had Many Trying Days, But He Still Letters in Three Sports

"The first time I took a single scull out to try my hand at rowing, I turned it over twice, and they finally had to send a launch out to bring me in." reflects Jay Galeski on one of the bad moments in his sporting career.

There have been many such experiences in the life of the 5' 5'', 120-pound Galeski, who has to be the busiest and gamiest athlete at Harvard. The junior from Richmond, Virginia, is a varsity wrestler, captains the Crimson rifle team, and is a coxswain for crew.

"I wasn't into wrestling." says Galeski. "I just went out because the team had no one to fill the 118-pound division. Even if I got decisioned. I saved them two points per match, since they didn't have to forfeit that weight class"-which is a good philosophy for a guy who wound up the season with a slightly disappointing 1-14 record.

The high point of the year for Galeski came in the Harvard grapplers' 17-15 victory over Springfield-the first triumph over the Chiefs in 12 years. He provided the margin of victory by averting a pin at the hands of New England champion Bill Metts.

"I just kept trying to run away from him and crawl off the mat. I was called for stalling four times in the last 30 seconds. Once more and I would have been disqualified. Ten seconds more and he would have had me," Galeski says of the match.

But Galeski hasn't always been a selfless matman. In his freshman year he didn't even go out for wrestling, because he "had visions of going to the 1972 Olympics as a cox on the great Harvard crew team."

Galeski devoted his freshman year to making first boat. He was a JV cox last season and will find out this week whether he'll be a JV or a varsity cox this spring. Galeski notes that crew is a large burden because of the incredible amount of practice time it requires. "Sometimes I have my doubts as to whether it's all worth it, but then again, I enjoy crew a lot."

In addition to crew and wrestling, Galeski also serves as captain of the Crimson rifle team, which finished sixth in the Ivy League meet held at Princeton earlier this year. Says Galeski, who runs the rifle squad, 0-4 for the season, "Whenever I schedule matches, we shoot them. We haven't done well, but we seem to be improving."

All these sports, of course, present a time problem for Galeski, who is majoring in Government and taking premed course on the side. A day's schedule during the winter often includes crew practice from 2-4 p. m., wrestling from 4-6, and shooting from 7-9.

This semester has been especially taxing, since he is taking two lab sciences. "What goes is my sleep. I've found I can get by on four or five hours a night."

Galeski is also bothered by the fact that he has to be losing weight six months out of the year-for crew and wrestling. "Last year my weight varied between 108 and 125. When I have to lose weight. I run around in my red sweatsuit and stop eating."

In addition to all his other activities, Galeski managed to find time to box in the intramural matches as a freshman. In a typical description of another defeat despite a strong effort, Galeski says, "I finished second in intramurals because there were only three boxers in my class and I got a bye to the finals. In the fight, the other guy flattened me in the first ten seconds and bloodied my nose. But I got up and lasted it out."