Wrestling Takes Third In EIWA Championship

Harvard Wrestling Coach Jay Weiss is never one to give excuses. But this time, he had plenty of excuses to be proud as his team captured third place--the best finish in the program's history--at the EIWA Championship this past weekend.

After topping last year's fourth place finish, Harvard (8-6, 2-3 Ivy) has solidified its place among the conference's top teams and shown that it is on the rise.

After two days of competition at West Point, N.Y., the Crimson returned home boasting nine top-six finishes. A second place finish by sophomore Brad Soltis and individual titles by tri-captain Dustin DeNunzio and junior Joey Killar earned the trio a trip to the NCAA Championships later this month.

Harvard amassed 115 points en route to claiming third place. Penn (10-0-2, 4-0-1 Ivy)--last year's EIWA champs--again commanded the tournament, winning five of the ten individual titles and amassing 166.5 points to take first. The Quakers were followed by Cornell (13-2-1), which had 135.5 points.

"There were a lot of high points," DeNunzio said. "A third place finish is amazing, especially over teams like Lehigh and Brown. We only came in behind Penn and Cornell, programs ranked 12th and 15th in the nation."

In what has been characteristic of the pair all season, DeNunzio and Killar--both ranked No. 7 in the nation and seeded No. 1 going into the tournament--simply dismantled all competition on their way to earning titles in their 141-and 165-pound weight classes, respectively.

DeNunzio's victory was one for the history books as he became first Harvard wrestler ever to capture two consecutive EIWA championships. He won last year's tournament in the 134-pound weight class on his way to All-American honors at Nationals.

DeNunzio got down to business immediately, pinning his first opponent, Aaron Paterson of Lehigh, just 26 seconds into the match. In the second round, he faced Columbia's Richard Feistman, who put up an extra 20 seconds of fighting before meeting the same fate as Paterson.

DeNunzio then blew past Rutgers' Tom Wysocki, 6-2, in the semifinals and clinched the title with a 6-4 overtime victory over Ben New of Cornell, ranked No. 12 nationally.

"The guy in the finals wrestled me pretty well, but it is great to have that match going into Nationals because it showed me things I need to work on," DeNunzio said.

DeNunzio's stellar performance throughout the weekend earned him the Sheridan Award, which is given to the wrestler who gets the most falls in the shortest amount of time.

"Dustin was on a mission," Weiss said. "The finals was an overtime match, but it wasn't close. Dustin gave [New] his points."

Killar, who was out with a rib injury for almost two months before returning to action this weekend, showed he hasn't missed a beat in his time away from competition. After a bye in the first round, Killar racked up a 6-3 win over Nick Almeida of Brown before going on to defeat Army's Troy Yegge, 3-1, in the semifinals. For his first EIWA title, Killar thoroughly beat the Quaker's Rick Springman, who was ranked No. 10, 9-4.

"Not to compete since Jan. 5 and then come out and do what he did is just unbelievable," Weiss said. "[Joey] had everyone in awe. He just shut them down."

Sophomore star Brad Soltis, seeded No. 3 in the tournament, also had a terrific showing this weekend, good for second place in the 197-pound weight class. Soltis began with a pin of Jason Marasco of East Stroudsburg in just 1:48 and followed with an 8-6 win over Chris Federici of Rutgers. He then garnered an exciting 3-2 victory over Bob Greenleaf of Cornell, ranked No. 11, to advance to the finals.

"The semifinals was one of the best matches I've seen," DeNunzio said. "He had tough competition. Two [of the six] wildcard spots came from that weight class."

In the finals, Soltis was unable to overtake Penn's Andrei Rodzianko, ranked No. 3, and fell, 18-4. Rodzianko would go on to win the Most Outstanding Wrestler of the Tournament as well as the 1999 John Fletcher Memorial Trophy, given to the wrestler who made the greatest contribution to the EIWA tournament.

"Brad was one of the talks of the tournament," Weiss said. "He really opened some eyes. He had a great match in the semis to avenge the loss to Cornell's Greenleaf in the dual meet season, and he kept fighting against Rodrianko."

Matt Picarsic, another sophomore standout, repeated last year's impressive third place performance at EIWAs in the 133-pound weight class. Seeded No. 3, Picarsic quickly shut down Brett Taylor of Rutgers in the first round with a pin at 4:30 before grappling past Zane Stickel of Navy 4-2 in the second round.

Picarsic found stiffer competition in Penn's Jason Nagle, who won 6-1, but rebounded with a 5-1 thumping of Columbia's Nick Fokas to capture third place.

At 149 pounds, arguably the most difficult weight class of the competition because it boasted four of the top twenty wrestlers in the nation, tri-captain Joel Friedman grappled to a fourth place finish. After a first round bye, Friedman--ranked No. 17 and seeded No. 4 in the tournament--came out ready for action against Columbia's Brad Clement. He collected the win with a pin at 4:22 in the match to advance to the semis to face Penn's Brett Matter, No. 4 in the country. Friedman fell to Matter 6-2 then went up against No. 6 Ryan Bernholz of Lehigh. Freidman lost a close 6-3 bout to finish fourth.

Although the losses were disappointing, Friedman's solid performance against the toughest in the nation rounded out what has been a terrific four years with the Harvard wrestling team. The weekend was the final EIWA tournament for both Friedman and DeNunzio, who have become the heart and soul of this Crimson squad. Their impact on Harvard wrestling is one that will endure long after they are gone.

"Joel and Dustin have been the cornerstones of the program," Weiss said. "We went from basically zero to third in the EIWA. It has been neat watching them throughout their careers. They have been a major part of the philosophy of the program--the attitude, the expectations, and the leadership."

At 157 pounds, No. 2 seed junior Kevin Kurtz easily swept by Brown's Chris Ayers 8-0 and Syracuse's Robert Buyea 4-1 in the first two rounds of the weekend. In the semis, Kurtz, who was ranked No. 19 nationally, lost a heartbreaking 2-1 match to No. 14 Yoshi Nakumura of Penn and then fell to Leo Urbinelli of Cornell for a fourth-place finish.

Sophomore Kevin El-Hayek (at 125 pounds), junior tri-captain Fran Volpe (at 184 pounds) and freshman David Rechul (at heavyweight) all had strong performances that earned them sixth place finishes among the conference's best. Sophomore Adam Truitt also wrestled well at 174 pounds, coming close to placing but falling short in a tight 3-2 loss to Columbia's Adam Greco.

"Adam wrestled the best he's wrestled in a Harvard uniform," Weiss said.

DeNunzio, Killar and Soltis now get ready for Nationals, which is held at Penn State on March 18. They will train hard this week then taper as the competition draws near. DeNunzio and Killar are expected to be among the top six seeds in their respective weight classes.

Harvard finished the season with a winning record, and although the dual meets of February did not go as well as the Crimson would have liked, the scores don't do justice to the close battles it had with Penn, Cornell and Brown-all of which could have swung the other way.

The team did extremely well in the tournament competition, placing first at the Ivy Classic to open the season in November, ninth at the Cliff-Keen Invitational and third at EIWAs.

About a month ago, on the eve of Harvard's dual meet with the Quakers, the Daily Pennsylvanian described the Crimson as "always-tough Harvard." After a season of historic success, the grapplers can be proud of the reputation they earned and look forward to giving Penn a lesson or two on toughness in the seasons ahead.