Wrestling Opens Season Finishing Third at Ivy Classic

NEW YORK--Sunday is usually known as a day of rest, especially for college athletics. Still, last Sunday the Harvard wrestling team found itself hard at work in New York City opening a new season.

Led by first place finishes of co-captain Ed Mosley in the 174-lb weight class and junior Matt Picarsic in 133-lb class, the team battled its way to third place overall in the Ivy Classic, hosted by Columbia. This was an auspicious beginning to a year filled with promise.

"This is the strongest we've started" Harvard Coach Jay Weiss said. "We weren't focused on winning as much as on doing the correct things in the matches. I asked them to do specific things and they did."

The Crimson finished with 121 points behind Penn and Cornell who garnered 141 and 131.5 points respectively. Such a finish was especially impressive as it included eleven top-six finishes and was done despite the absence of co-captain and All-American Joey Killar and junior NCAA qualifier Brad Soltis both ranked No. 1 in the EIWA for their respective weight classes.

"The team looked really good," senior Kevin Kurtz said. "We have high hopes for the season."

After taking a leave of absence last year, Mosley has already sparked the team in his first match back. Proving why he is ranked No. 1 in the EIWA, Mosley simply dismantled the competition. He cruised to the finals with a pair of victories over Brown wrestlers John Williams , 17-2, and Nick Almeida, 8-4. Mosley then won the championship with a 9-1 major decision over Joe Tucceri of Cornell.

"Nobody was even close to scoring on him" Weiss said. "He was very dominate and just kept making adjustments."

Picarsic, ranked third in the EIWA, also had an outstanding day that ended with a commanding 18-10 major decision win over rival Livio DiRubbo from Brown, ranked second in the EIWA.

"Matt made a big adjustment to the way he wrestled him and then it wasn't even close." Weiss said. "He did a great job."

The finals match was the culmination of a run that included a pin of Quaker Brett Vanderveer in forty-three seconds and an 11-10 victory in the semi-finals over Cornell's Dean Doyle.

"It was a good mental exercise to get from the semis to the finals," said Picarsic, who made it to the semis in last years Classic. "It is time to step it up."

Senior Kevin Kurtz, another of team's leaders--ranked No. 4 in the EIWA--continued Harvard's string of success in the 157-pound weight class. After a 9-3 win over Joe Natasi of Penn and a 13-0 major decision victory over Princeton's Jeffrey Bernd in the semis Kurtz finished second, losing a close bout 6-5 to Cornell's John Fogarty.

At 125-pounds, sophomore Brandon Rhoades turned in a excellent second place performance. Though he fell in the finals to Cornell's Aaron Taylor, Rhoades made it to the championship round with a pin over Marc Steyer of Princeton at 5:40 in the quarterfinals and defeated Penn's Kevin Rucci, ranked no. 6 in the EIWA, 5-3 in the semis.

Freshman David Germakian made a strong collegiate debut wrestling at 125-pounds and finishing in sixth place.

In the 141-pound weight class sophomore Eric Swick, who was kept out last season by injury, returned to the mats with a strong fourth place finish guaranteed by a 8-3 defeat of Clint Frease in the consolation semis. Right on his heels was freshman Nick Picarsic, Matt's brother, whose tough wrestling captured him a fifth place spot.

Max Odom also showed the promise of this freshman class as he took third place in the 149-lbs weight class. Despite losing, 5-4 to Penn's Jody Giuricich in the semis Odom bounced back strong with a 16-1 technical fall in the consolation semis and an 8-6 win over Cornell's Gabe Webster in the finals.

At 174 pounds Freshman Patrick O'Donnell proved that Mosley was not the only Crimson force to fear. After a 6-3 win in the consolation quarterfinals followed by a 5-4 defeat of Brown's Nick Almeida, O'Donnell earned a third place spot with his 8-6 win over Brown's Brad McDonald, who is ranked No. 6 in the EIWA.

Freshman Reggie Lee proved no exception to this display of rookie strength as he came in fourth in the 184-lb weight class. Though unable to overcome Cornell's Chris Gafner, Lee secured himself the fourth place position with his 3-1 defeat of Cornell's Randy Stout in the consolation-semis.

At heavyweight, sophomore standout Dawid Rechul wrestled his way to fourth place with a 13-3 major decision win in the consolation semis. After beating Columbia's David Boyuk easily, 7-3 in the quarters, Rechul proved himself an equal contender in the semis to Penn's Bandele Adenyi-Bada, ranked No. 1 in EIWA, but was unable to come out with the win.

However in keeping the All-American in check, and battling to the end, Rechul showed that he can certainly contend with the nation's top wrestlers.

Overall it was a tournament which left the Crimson with much to be proud of and much to look forward to and it heads to East Stroudsburg next weekend.

"We were the best conditioned team there," said Weiss. "We showed that we match up well with the top two teams [Penn and Cornell]."

"It was a good way to start the season," said Picarsic. "We wrestled well but the tournament was more for us to see the potential that is there."

Judging from Sunday's tournament, the potential of this Crimson squad should guarantee an exciting season both in the Ivy League and hopefully, the nation.