Wrestlers Take Down Tigers, Eagles

Harvard's wrestling team routed Princeton and Boston College in a triangular yesterday at the Malkin Athletic Center, despite injuries and illnesses to key team members.

In the first match of the round-robin tournament, Harvard beat league-rival Princeton 30-16.

The Tiger grapplers are reeling this season from their university's decision to stop funding wrestling as an official school sport starting this year and thus make the program's survival entirely contingent on the paltry and whimsical flow of alumni donations.

"They seemed weaker than in the past," Crimson sophomore Craig Vitagliano said. "They had to forfeit a lot of matches. Wrestling has become like a club-sport there."

Against the Tigers, Harvard jumped out to a quick lead and never looked back.

The Crimson got off to an 18-0 lead with a forfeit in the 118-pound category and pins by 126-pound freshman Brendan Noonan at 4:28 in the second period and 134-pound junior Todd David at 2:08 in the first period.

The Tigers bounced back in the 142-pound division when junior wrestler Brian Duckworth got the better half of a 7-6 match with Harvard's Ron Mitra, but Harvard junior Khris Reina came back with a 7-4 decision in the 150-pound weight class to increase the Crimson lead to 21-3.

Princeton made its most serious surge midway through the match. Harvard sophomore Steve Gerstung lost a 9-7 decision to Junior Doug Roskos in the 158-pound division and Crimson junior Bill Forlano was pinned in the 167-pound division.

But with the Crimson lead cut to 21-12, Harvard put the match away. First, Crimson Sophomore Dan Vandermyde won a convincing 10-3 decision in the 177-pound weight class.

And then, after Crimson freshman Jeffrey Perkosky dropped a 10-1 decision at 190 pounds, Harvard's heavyweight Bill Counihan won by forfeit.

"Princeton had to forfeit a couple of weights," head coach Jim Peckham said. "That gave us an advantage."

After Boston College narrowly defeated Princeton in the second match of the tournament, the Crimson were unleashed on the weary Eagles, coming out of the battle with a convincing 40-6 win.

"[Boston College] has got a fair team," Peckham said. "But we expected to win so we substituted a bit."

Vitagliano started things off in the 118-pound division with a quick pin at 1:38 of the first period.

Noonan followed with an 8-7 win in what was the day's most exciting decision. Down 6-7 with 11 seconds left in the third period, Noonan tallied two quick points to steal the victory.

In five of the middle matches against Boston College, Harvard was more dominating, winning decisions in the 142, 150, 158, 167, and 177-pound divisions by a combined score off 55-6.

Winning for the Crimson were Mitra, Gerstung, Forlano, and Vandermyde.

Boston College forfeited the 142-pound division to Harvard sophomore Dylan Seff and later gave up the heavyweight match to Counihan.

The Eagles tallied their only points when Boston College's 190-pound Peter Folan earned a pin at the 44 second mark of the first period.

"We did well today, particularly in the Boston College match," Vandermyde said.

"A lot of people stepped up and put in good performances. I just hope we can continue wrestling well tomorrow."

Today, the Crimson are likely to have a tougher go of it when they host Rutgers, Albany and Pennsylvania at the MAC.

"Rutgers is tough, Albany always gives us trouble, and [Pennsylvania is coming off its biggest win in 10 years against Cornell," Pecham said, summing up today's challenge.

He and his wrestlers must face these formidable opponents without the services of captain Steve Aoki and senior Zach Cooper--both of whom are sidelined by injuries.

"Tomorrow could be a rocky day for us," Peckham said.

But to its credit, the Crimson goes into the match with the two big wins yesterday and a considerable amount of momentum.

"Everything's meshing these days," Davis said. "We're just starting our Ivy League season, and we're in the best shape we've been in since I've been here. Tomorrow will be difficult, but it will allow us to see just how good we are."