Wrestlers Clinch Oklahoma Berths

The strong showing by the Harvard wrestling team this weekend at the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA) Championships in Bethlehem, Pa. was an encouraging sign for the Crimson as it prepared for the NCAA Championships in two weeks.

On Sunday, junior tri-captain Bode Ogunwole and freshman Andrew Flanagan both finished first in their weight classes—the latter in a bizarre sequence in the finals—while junior tri-captain Max Meltzer and junior Robbie Preston both finished second after losing in the finals.

After Saturday’s competition, all four wrestlers clinched berths in the NCAA Championships, which will be held in Oklahoma City on March 17-19. The top three wrestlers in each weight class in the EIWAs earn a berth in the NCAA, and 14 wild-card wrestlers are selected by a vote among league coaches to join the group.

Overall in the EIWAs, Harvard finished fifth out of 13 teams in the tournament, putting up 79.5 points. The Crimson placed just behind Navy, which finished with 86 points, while Lehigh, Cornell, and Penn finished in the top three, respectively.

No. 2 Ogunwole—who had finished fifth last year in the EIWAs in the 285 lbs.—continued to build on his successful season by defeating Tanner Garret of Navy, 3-2, in the finals, en route to securing his first ever EIWA championship title.

No. 3-seeded Preston (133 lbs.), who had finished first last year in the EIWAs at 125 lbs., almost pulled off another championship victory this year. To reach the finals, he defeated No. 2 seed Mike Mormile of Cornell, 5-3, who had dealt Preston his only dual meet loss of the season. In the finals, however, he fell short to Matthew Valenti of Penn in double overtime.

“I wrestled well for the most part,” Preston said. “I just made a mistake in the third period [of the finals].”

With the score tied, 2-2, in regulation, the junior missed a chance to get an easy point, instead letting his opponent force the match into overtime.

“[The] little mistake cost me the match,” Preston added. “When you’re at the top level, you can’t make those kinds of mistakes.”

Meltzer, the No. 2 seed, advanced to the championship at 141 lbs. with a 10-3 decision against No. 6 Spencer Manley of Navy and a 5-1 decision against No. 3 Steve Adamcsik of Rutgers. In the finals, No. 1 seed Cory Cooperman of Lehigh secured the title by outwrestling Meltzer, 5-2.

Flanagan, seeded No. 3 at 157 lbs., could not have had a better showing in his first trip to the EIWAs.

The finals proved to be anticlimactic, ending only seconds after it began. In a rematch against top-seeded Dustin Manotti, who lost to the freshman 13-12 this season at Cornell, the two wrestlers got into a scramble right from the start, with Flanagan inadvertently hitting Manotti with his elbow.

“[He] went out cold,” Flanagan said, “so that was the end of the match.”

Freshman Louis Caputo (seeded No. 3 at 184 lbs.) lost his quarterfinal match on Saturday, but recorded a major decision in the first consolation match and a 16-0 technical fall in the second. On Sunday, Caputo lost to No. 5 Dustin Wiles of Penn, 5-4, before winning the fifth place match, 13-2, against Justin Barent of Columbia.

Sophomore Bobby Latessa (149 lbs.) won two matches for the Crimson on Saturday, and captain Mike Baria (165 lbs.) won a bout against Matt Pletcher of Rutgers, 7-0. Freshman Wesley Walker (174 lbs.) and sophomore Billy Colgan (197 lbs.) also wrestled for Harvard, though neither came away with a win over the weekend.

The Crimson wrestlers now look forward to the NCAA Championships with hopes of finishing in the top eight and qualifying to be All-Americans.

“If I can wrestle the way I did [this weekend] and just make a few corrections, I feel I can finish on top,” Preston said. “My goal is to win Nationals. I’m going to focus on that for the next two weeks. This week doesn’t mean much in the overall scheme of things.”

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