Injuries Doom Wrestling Against Bucknell

For the Harvard wrestling team, injuries proved to be too much of an obstacle in its match against Bucknell at the Malkin Athletic Center Sunday, as the Bison, who are undefeated in the EIWA, stampeded past Harvard, 26-9. With the loss, the Crimson moves to 1-4, with an 0-3 EIWA record.

“There’s a lot of things that we could have done better,” Harvard coach Jay Weiss said. “Bucknell has a strong team that wrestles well on top, and you could see today that there are some things that we need to get better at on the bottom. Overall we just need to fight more. Our guys need to understand that it’s not just about technique. We need to really fight.”

At this point in the season, the Crimson has several athletes out with injuries, including all of its athletes in the 125-pound weight class.

“We knew that we were going to have to forfeit at 125, so we went into the match already six points down,” co-captain James Fox said. “It was a tough start that we just couldn’t overcome.

Following this rocky beginning, stand out performances for Harvard came from Fox and junior co-captain Todd Preston, as well as rookie Josef Johnson, each of whom notched a win for the Crimson. Preston managed to pull out a win against Bucknell’s Tyler Smith, edging past his opponent with a 4-3 win.

“Todd wrestled a close, controlled match,” Weiss said. “Was he wrestling his best? No. But you need to be able to pull off the win even when you’re not at your best, and that’s what he did today.”

For Fox, his individual win marked a big turnaround from last weekend’s performance against Cornell, as the senior took a commanding 6-1 victory over Tyler Greene of the Bison.

“I had a week to rehab and recover from a knee injury that’s been really tough, and feeling healthy helped me to perform better today,” Fox said. “And mentally, I was just more confident in the moves. I was a bit sluggish last weekend, so I changed up my warm-up, and stayed a lot more mentally focused.”

Harvard’s third winner of the day was Johnson, who notched his fourth collegiate win with his performance over Bucknell’s Rory Bonner. The freshman held on in a gritty match, garnering the win in a 4-3 decision.

“Josef Johnson, he’s becoming better and better at wrestling those close matches and pulling out wins with every contest,” Weiss said.

Freshman Kanon Dean and senior heavyweight David Ng missed out on recording victories for the Crimson, but each put up a notable fight.

“Kanon did well, he fought hard and did a nice job for us out there,” Weiss said. “At heavyweight, I think David is better than that, and he definitely could have wrestled with that guy.”

After the match, Weiss acknowledged that the Crimson’s fate is ultimately going to be tied heavily to the injuries that are plaguing the squad right now.

“We have some growing pains right now, but it’s okay as long as our guys take steps from it and learn from it and keep working hard,” Weiss said. “We need to keep making adjustments. Obviously we are disappointed, but we have the time to heal up this next week and a half and get some guys back, which is going to help a lot.”

—Staff writer Jillian Dukes can be reached at jdukes01@college.harvard.edu.