Terriers Spoil Matmen's Debut, 19-17

Last winter, the Crimson matmen captured nine of 15 meets to rack up their first winning record in five long years. The return of seven of ten starters and a handful of talented reserves, along with the arrival of the finest freshman contingent in four years, promises to make this year's squad even better.

The team will wrestle more meets this time around, and several of the foes which were added to the slate are weak enough to insure that Harvard will improve on last year's 9-6 finish.

"It would be really disappointing if we didn't do better," coach Johnny Lee said Monday.

Stars

Unfortunately, the Crimson could trot out a much-improved squad and still not better last season's 3-2, third-place Ivy League record. Of the 20 grapplers who were first or second team All-Ivy last winter, 18 return to the league battles this year. And believe it or not, the only two who graduated were from Harvard, last year's co-captains Milt Yasunaga (126 lbs.) and Kip Smith (UNL).

Defending champion Princeton, which has lost only one league meet in the last three years, returns an awesome lineup that Harvard will need a miracle to beat. The Tigers bested the Crimson last year, 26-9.

Second place is a more achievable goal. Yale edged Harvard for that honor last winter, 23-15. Lee honestly feels that his squad was better, but got caught on a bad day. The team doesn't want to be disappointed again.

Rebuilding

The lightweight end of the Crimson lineup has been rebuilt. Dave Albert (118 lbs.) was the third senior to graduate, and Ray Dominquez was the only man on the roster available to take his place. While the newcomer will be competitive, Lee fears that this will be one of the weaker links in the Harvard array.

Freshman Rick Kief (126 lbs.), a Massachusetts high school champion from Norwood, moves into the spot vacated by Yasunaga. Despite the fact that the departed Rhodes Scholar went 10-1-1 last year to cap a brilliant four-year career, Lee is so impressed by Kief that he expects no drop-off in performance at that spot.

Another Yardling, Keith Oberg (134 lbs.), the brother of Dartmouth's superlative gridiron fullback, is currently starting ahead of the injured Bill Mulvihill (6-5-1). The experienced junior will return to action in a few days, but Oberg has done so well that the veteran may have trouble winning his job back.

Better Than Ever

Senior Bob Cusumano (3-1-2) is wrestling better than ever at the 142-pound slot, and senior co-captains Tom Bixby (7-7) and Jim Corcoran (7-6-2) are holding down the middle weights.

The 167-pound spot is shaping up as a headache for coach Lee. Last year's regular, Ed Bordley (3-10), is coming off a disappointing campaign and is having trouble making weight. John Franklin, a veteran who took last year off, is slated to start, but he is too light to do well this high in the lineup.

In the next spot, freshman Tony Cimmarusti (177 lbs.) gets the nod ahead of fellow freshmen John Scibetta and Rick Miller, one of whom may drop to fill the gap at 167.

Sal D 'agostino split time between 177 and 190 last winter and was the team's best wrestler with a 12-1 record and 10 pins. He settles into the heavier of the two slots this time, pushing Fred Smith (2-7-1) out of his starting job. Sal's only loss last season came at the hands of Yale's Joe Cooper when the Crimson grappler was forced by the team score to gamble for a pin.

New Heavyweight

D'agostino must face both Cooper and Princeton's Keith Ely, who beat the Harvard matman in a post-season tournament. The two did not face each other in the regular season.

Craig Beling, a starting linebacker on the football team, inherits the heavyweight spot. Beling was good enough to start last year, but gave way to Kip Smith's experience. Lee expects him to be one of New England's finest heavyweights.

The Crimson matmen got an upset victory from John Franklin (167 lbs.) in last night's season opener, but the last two wrestlers in the Harvard lineup wilted as B.U. gained a come-from-behind victory, 19-17.

It was the fifth meeting between the Crimson and the Terriers, and for the fifth straight time the Comm Ave. grapplers came away with a close decision. "You'd think sometime the breaks would go the other way," Harvard coach Johnny Lee said last night.

Franklin trailed in his match, 8-2, but rallied for a 10-8 triumph which gave his team a 15-11 advantage with only three matches remaining.

The first of those three battles featured a pair of freshmen, Harvard's Tony Cimmarusti (177 lbs.) and B.U.'s Bill Peglarro, and ended in a scoreless tie.

Sal D'agostino trotted out next to face a foe he had beaten each of the last two years by a single point. This time, however, he suffered a slight concussion in the first period and went down to a 6-4 defeat that ended his hopes for an undefeated season before they even got off the ground. D'agostino lost only once last year.

Harvard still led, 17-16, but heavyweight Craig Beling has been practicing less than two weeks after spending the fall on the gridiron, and the rustiness showed. The Crimson grappler quickly found himself in a hole, down 6-1. He just missed pinning his opponent in the final period, but ended up losing a wild one, 16-10.

The late charge gave the Terriers the victory, 19-17.

Harvard's Ray Dominquez (118 lbs.) dropped the first match of the evening, 16-13, but Crimson freshman Rick Kief (126 lbs.) forced home a pin in his first varsity start.

After Keith Oberg (134 lbs.), another yardling starter, bowed to the experience and prowess of B.U. co-captain Jeff Madden, 4-1, Crimson seniors Bob Cusumano (142 lbs.) and Tom Bixby (150 lbs.) notched back-to-back wins to put Harvard ahead, 12-8.

The other Terrier co-captain, Cliff Whalen (158 lbs.), edged senior Jim Corcoran for the third straight year, 8-5. In the next match, Franklin's surprising win apparently put the Crimson in the driver's seat, but that was before the roof fell in.