Individual Performances Fail to Save Weekend

The Crimson wrestlers finished their last dual meets of the season on the road this weekend, losing to Cornell on Friday before splitting their matches against Columbia and Duke on Saturday in New York.

For the Crimson (5-9-1, 2-2-1 Ivy), the season thus far had been marked by several impressive individual performances. Seventh-ranked junior tri-captain Bode Ogunwole boasts a 15-0 record in dual meets and 24-5 overall, while junior tri-captain Max Meltzer has a 13-1 record after returning from an injury that had kept him out of competition in the fall semester.

HARVARD 29, COLUMBIA 16;

DUKE 24, HARVARD 21

Harvard defeated the Lions on Saturday afternoon in the team’s first dual competition of the day. Duke then edged out the Crimson by breaking a 21-21 tie in the final match to take a 24-21 win.

Harvard began the day against Columbia (8-8, 2-3) with the heavyweight bout, in which Ogunwole posted a major decision against Bill Beechum, 16-2, and gave the Crimson a 4-0 lead.

After Harvard forfeited the 125-lbs. bout, eighth-ranked junior Robbie Preston (133 lbs.) recorded a 7-2 win, and No. 14 Meltzer pinned Sal Tirico in the third period of the 141 lbs. match.

Freshman Louis Caputo clinched the victory for the Crimson after earning a 6-4 winning decision in overtime. Sophomore Billy Colgan picked up a win through an injury default at 197 lbs.

Against Duke, Ogunwole again started with a major decision victory for Harvard, 11-2—his 15th win in dual meets this season.

“I thought I wrestled well,” Ogunwole said. “I’m wrestling a lot better than I did a couple of weeks ago and I hope to keep on improving down the stretch here.”

The Crimson and the Blue Devils traded forfeits at 125 lbs. and 133 lbs. before Meltzer’s streak of 13 consecutive wins was abruptly snapped by unseeded Philip Wightman, who defeated the tri-captain with a pinfall victory.

After a win at 149 lbs. for the Blue Devils in which Daniel Shvartsman edged out Button, 7-6 Latessa had a close win of his own, defeating his opponent, 4-3.

In the end, the Blue Devils sealed the victory after Konrad Dudziak defeated Colgan in a 5-1 decision.

CORNELL 28, HARVARD 9

Harvard was out-wrestled by No. 14 Cornell (8-4, 5-0) on Friday, but Flanagan put up the most impressive performance of the day by defeating sixth-ranked Dustin Manotti, 13-12, in a unusually high-scoring match.

The Big Red pulled off two one-point wins on the night to defeat the Crimson at the Friedman Wrestling Center, 28-9. With the win against Harvard and Saturday’s win against Brown, Cornell has clinched the Ivy title for the fourth year in a row.

—Staff writer Tony D. Qian can be reached at tonyqian@fas.harvard.edu