Wrestling Suffers Trio of Defeats

The Harvard wrestling team had a difficult weekend, losing two close matches to Brown and Boston University on Saturday before No. 12 Lehigh dominated the Crimson on Sunday afternoon.

On Saturday, both the Bears and the Terriers jumped out to early team leads.

Harvard kept it close and was within striking distance until the match’s final bouts. But Harvard was unable to win either contest.

“It came down to mistakes; who made more mistakes,” junior co-captain Walter Peppelman said. “The teams that made the least mistakes won the dual meets, and unfortunately that wasn’t us.”

The day saw two individual wins for both No. 12 junior Steven Keith and No. 8 Peppelman in the 133- and 157-pound weight classes, respectively, while four other Crimson wrestlers recorded a win on the day.

Peppelman carried his win streak to the next day against the Mountain Hawks, giving Harvard its only team points with a pin on Lehigh’s Brian Tanen.

The pin also gave Peppelman his 25th career fall, tying for third on the Crimson’s all-time list.

But Lehigh and its six ranked wrestlers, two of whom are No. 2 nationally, were too much for the Crimson, and the Mountain Hawks won nine of 10 matches with four major decisions and three pins against Harvard.

LEHIGH 40, HARVARD 6

The Crimson struggled against a dominant Mountain Hawks squad on Sunday at the Malkin Athletic Center. The only Harvard win came from Peppelman, who pinned his opponent, Tanen, at 4:56.

Already ahead in points, Peppelman had the advantage over Tanen on the floor. With Tanen still facing forward on all fours and Peppelman on his back, Peppelman grabbed hold of the inside of one of Tanen’s legs and wrapped his other arm under and around his opponent’s shoulder.

Soon after, Tanen got to his feet to make the escape, but the Harvard grappler shifted his grip to grab hold of Tanen’s waist and simultaneously pulled him backwards and back towards the ground.

In control, Peppelman managed to shift his hips around Tanen’s lower body, exposing his opponent’s back to the mat.

After a five-count gave Peppelman back points, he continued to attack Tanen. And with less than 10 seconds remaining in the period, Peppelman scooted his feet up closer to his head, folding his body over Tanen and forcing Tanen’s shoulderblades to inch closer towards the floor.

With one final kick in the air, Peppelman managed to get Tanen completely on his back to score the fall.

BOSTON UNIVERSITY 21, HARVARD 17

After traveling back to campus from an earlier away match against Brown, the Crimson suited up against Boston University in a cross-town rivalry match for the Charles Cup.

Wins from Keith, Peppelman, freshman Josh Popple and sophomore Cameron Croy put Harvard down only one point going into the final match between freshman David Ng and the Terriers’ Kevin Innis.

Innis scored the first takedown, but an escape by Ng brought the grappler within one, 2-1.

With the crowd’s excitement escalating, both wrestlers kept making tries at their opponent’s legs.

But in the end, Innis recorded two more takedowns, and BU came out with the win.

“Ultimately, there are several matches that could have gone either way,” Croy said. “[Saturday night] they happened to go BU’s way, but any other night, they could go our way, and we could win that. So, I don’t think it means that BU is a better team than us; it just means the cards fell that way.”

BROWN 22, HARVARD 17

In its first of three weekend matches, the Crimson traveled to Providence, R.I. to take on Brown.

After a major decision against freshman Max Mejia at the 125-pound class, Keith brought the team score back within one with a decision over the Bears’ Teodoro Popolizio.

Following Brown wins at 141 and 149 pounds, Peppelman recorded one of his three victories in as many matches this weekend, and the score moved to 10-8 in favor of the Bears.

Sophomore Ian Roy stepped onto the mat and gave Harvard its only lead after he defeated Jeffrey Lemmer, 7-3, at the 165-pound weight class.

Up 11-10 for the team score, the Crimson dropped its next three matches, securing the loss.

—Staff writer Taryn I. Kurcz can be reached at tkurcz13@college.harvard.edu.