Harvard Finishes No. 18 in Midlands Championship, Ogunwole No. 4 in Heavyweight Division

Despite traveling with only six wrestlers, the Harvard wrestling team finished at a respectable 18th out of 50 participating teams in the Midlands Championship, hosted by Northwestern at the Welsh-Ryan Arena just before the holiday weekend.

Junior tri-captain Bode Ogunwole, entering as the top-seeded heavyweight, was the only Crimson wrestler to advance into the semifinals on Friday, the second day of the tournament. He defeated Dave Herman of Indiana in a 5-3 decision Thursday and overcame Tyler Rhodes of Northern Iowa, 2-1, in a match that went to overtime.

In the semifinal match Friday against fourth seed Matt Fields of Iowa, Ogunwole could not pull off a second consecutive close victory and fell by a 2-1 score. After notching a 2-1 sudden victory against eighth seed Joe Sapp of Northern Illinois, Ogunwole fell in the third-place bout to sixth seed Payam Zarrinpour of Sacred Heart, 1-0, in yet another match decided by just one point.

Freshman Andrew Flanagan (157 lbs.) won his first two matches Thursday, which included a 3-1 decision against Sherwood Fendrick of Sacred Heart and a pin of ninth seeded Travis Picard (unattached). However, an 8-4 loss to eighth seeded Matt Kocher (unattached) cost Flanagan a quarterfinal berth, and a 5-3 loss to Andy Keller of Central Michigan ended his day.

Tri-captain Mike Baria (165 lbs.) lost his first match to top-seeded Travis Paulson of Iowa State, but recovered to win his next two bouts by decision. He then lost to another seeded wrestler, Ray Blake of Stanford, in his final match. Freshman Louis Caputo (184 lbs.) also garnered two victories by decision, but could not overcome the third and sixth seeds in the other two bouts.

Sophomore Bobby Latessa (149 lbs.) picked up the only major decision by a Harvard wrestler, defeating Eddie Hojilla of UNC-Pembroke by a score of 10-1 in his third match of the day. Latessa won his first match against Brett Stedman of Iowa in a 5-2 decision, but later lost to Mark Powell of Purdue in a close 7-6 bout and fell to Brandon Lozdowski of Northwestern, 7-3.

Also wrestling for the Crimson was sophomore Joseph Bechtold (174 lbs.) who lost his only two matches of the day.

On a side note, Harvard assistant coach Jared Frayer participated in the tournament as a member of the Gator Wrestling Club, easily reaching the semifinals at 165 pounds. He would finish fourth after two losses on Friday to the first and third seeds.

Overall, the Crimson wrestlers put 22.5 points on the board, one-and-a-half point behind West Virginia. Illinois won the championship by accumulating 115.5 points.

Harvard’s first tournament of the new year will be at Texas on Jan. 7, where it will face Utah Valley State, Chattanooga and Stanford in the Lone Star Duals.