Grapplers Dead Last At Eastern Tourney

It was a tough weekend for the Harvard men's wrestling team at the 1991 Eastern wrestling championships at Lehigh University. While every grappler that made the trip won at least one match, the Crimson placed last in the 16-team field.

Perennial wrestling powerhouse Syracuse edged Navy for the championship. Cornell, Army and Brown rounded out the top five.

The Crimson was led by junior 134-lb. Sam Cole, who was the highest Harvard finisher, coming in sixth. None of the other wrestlers placed.

In the first round, only Cole and freshman Michael Warnick at 142-lb. won their matches. Warnick was major-decisioned in the next round by William and Mary's Thierry Chaney, who was named the tournament's Outstanding Wrestler. Cole squeaked out a 10-8 win in the quarters before being decisioned 7-2 by Rich Santana of eventual Eastern champion Syracuse.

Josh Freshwater at 126 pounds, Mike Costanza at 150-lb., 158-lb. Chris Sanzone, 167-lb. John Drosos and 190-lb. Zachary Cooper were all relegated to the consolation matches.

The Crimson was hampered right from the start. Academics and injuries left Harvard without wrestlers in the 118-lb., 177-lb. and heavy-weight classes, and caused the Crimson to be penalized 15 points. Based on the results of the matches, the Crimson grapplers could only make up 11.5 of these points to finish at negative 3.5.

"We were one of the few teams to actually start with negative points," Drosos said. "This virtually guaranteed us a low finish."

During its dual meet schedule, the Crimson actually defeated Princeton, which placed seventh in the meet, and narrowly lost to ninth-place Pennsylvania.

Despite the relatively low finish, members of the team remain upbeat for next year as only one senior graduates.

"The team overall wrestled well," Costanza said. "We are a young team, and the Easterns gave us a chance to see what's out there."

The team attitude will have to change if the team hopes to improve on its 10-10-5 record this winter.

"At the beginning of this year, we did not consider ourselves winners," Warnick said. "Next year, with this year's experience under our belts, we should go into the season expecting to place highly in Easterns and to send wrestlers to nationals."