No. 24 Wrestling Splits With Army, Lehigh

While most Harvard students were celebrating the end of finals with some rest and relaxation, the Harvard wrestling team got neither as it traveled to Army and Lehigh this past weekend and kicked off the dual meet portion of their season. After a solid victory over Army, the team suffered a tough loss to the Engineers.

"It is hard coming off finals, but that is not an excuse," said Harvard Coach Jay Weiss. "We have to come out of finals ready to shift into fifth gear."

"We could have done better," said junior tri-captain Fran Volpe. "We have a lot to prove now."

The weekend began well for the team as it handily defeated Army, 23-13. Junior Kevin Kurtz set the tone for the meet with his 6-2 victory in the 157-pound class. A commanding 15-7 win by Volpe at 184 pounds and a 10-6 win by sophomore Brad Soltis at 194 pounds kept the Crimson in a head-to-head battle with Army.

Although the Crimson fell behind 10-13, back-to-back wins by sophomore Matt Picarsic at 133 pounds and senior tri-captain Dustin DeNunzio at 141 pounds helped overcome the deficit. Senior tri-captain Joel Friedman then secured the victory by dismantling his opponent at 149 pounds, 6-1.

The momentum of the win against Army did not carry over to the following day, and the team suffered a 23-14 loss at the hands of a formidable Lehigh team. The score was deceiving, because Harvard matched up far better than the nine-point difference suggests. The Harvard grapplers were unable to capitalize on early leads and finish off the Engineers.

"We lost some close ones that could have easily gone the other way," Friedman said.

Three especially tight battles involving Picarsic at 133 pounds, Friedman at 149 pounds and Kurtz at 157 pounds came down to the wire, but all resulted in heartbreaking losses either in overtime or the final moments of the matches.

"I am disappointed," Weiss said. "We snatched defeat out of the jaws of victory by not putting them away."

The team was also hurt by the absence of junior Joey Killar, whose impressive moves at 165-lbs have made him one of the Crimson's leading wrestlers this season. Killar aggravated a rib injury he suffered at Stanford, and the timetable for his return has not been determined.

However, Harvard also enjoyed some exceptional performances during the weekend. Soltis, competing in the 197-lb class, went undefeated in the two meets. His match against Lehigh was especially notable, as Soltis fought to an 8-3 win over Rob Rohn, one of the conference's top wrestlers.

Another highlight for the Crimson was the wrestling of tri-captain Dustin DeNunzio, who easily crushed has Army opponent 18-3 before going on to an equally dominating 24-8 victory at Lehigh.

The team now continues its intense training in preparation for the last stretch of the season before the Eastern Championships.

"There are little things we are not connecting with, technical stuff we need to polish up on," said freshman heavyweight Dawid Rechul. "Lehigh was definitely beatable, we just didn't do it."

The wrestlers will travel to Princeton and Penn this weekend for important meets.

"Dual meets are important and certainly heated rivalries. We want to go into Princeton and create momentum to take into Penn," Weiss said.

"We are looking forward to the Ivy weekend," Volpe said. "Everybody will have some tough matches so it should be pretty interesting."

With many close match-ups against Penn, its arch-rival for the past few years, Harvard has put Lehigh behind it, and is now looking ahead, ready for some retribution.

"I am definitely looking forward to avenging my loss [from earlier this year]," Friedman said. "We lost a battle at Lehigh, but there is still a war to fight."