EIWA Individual Meet Brings Expected Results

For the seniors on the Harvard wrestling team, the EIWA tournament represented a chance to finish their careers on a high note.

Bobby Latessa and Matt Button were the only seniors to compete for the Crimson, as nine grapplers traveled to Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa., and even they could only do so in leg braces.

“[Matt and Bobby] weren’t ready,” Harvard coach Jay Weiss said. “They showed a lot of courage. Many other people wouldn’t have [competed], but they wanted to go out on their own terms.”

Unfortunately for the two seniors, they dropped opening round bouts to the top-seeded wrestlers at 157 and 165 lbs. and would not advance in the consolation draw. It was instead the future of Harvard wrestling that shone brightest.

Sophomore J.P. O’Connor, ranked first in the tournament and second in the country, tore through the 149-lb field after a first-round bye. But, the All-American came up short in the finals, losing 5-4 to Penn’s Cesar Grajales.

“Sometimes you have to face hurdles,” O’Connor said. “But my goal is still the same, to be a national champion.”

Freshman Corey Jantzen, the No. 4 seed at 141 lbs, gave perhaps the most promising performance, making good on his ranking by taking fourth in the weight class in remarkable fashion.

Jantzen earned a fall in his first round bout in only 24 seconds before defeating Cornell’s Adam Frey, 11-7, in a hard-fought quarterfinal match. Jantzen could not land an upset against top-seeded Matthew Kyler, but the rookie did maintain his confidence and fought his way to the third-place match. The freshman forfeited the match midway through, though, in order to rest his nagging injuries before Nationals.

While Jantzen and O’Connor will be the only Harvard representatives at NCAAs, junior Tommy Picarsic also posted an outstanding weekend.

The lightest Crimson competitor, at 133 lbs, inspired the entire squad by opening the tournament with an upset of Army’s seventh-seeded Whitt Dunning, 8-7. The junior dropped his next bout, but rebounded by edging Dan Hilt and Bryan Ortenzio in the consolation draw. The Crimson wrestler’s run would end in the consolation semis.

“[Picarsic] opened the tournament and went up against two guys who beat him earlier [this year],” Weiss said. “Tommy’s the kind of guy who puts the team on his back.”

No other Crimson competitor made it past the second round of consolation.

Still, Weiss found promise in the performances of senior Billy Colgan, freshman Michael Sadler, and sophomores Fred Rowsey and Andrew Knapp.

“It may be the end of the year, but it’s also a springboard,” he said. “We look back [at these bouts] and say, ‘Let’s make the performance better.’”