Wrestlers Go 1-2 in Tri-Meet

Fresh off a dual-match sweep Friday afternoon against Princeton and Boston College, Harvard's wrestlers ran into three opponents at the Malkin Athletic Center Saturday who more than kept their hands full--Rutgers, Albany and Pennsylvania.

When the dust on the wrestling mats had settled after 12 round-robin matches on the day, the Crimson emerged with a 1-2 record.

Harvard lost to Ivy League power-house Penn in its first contest, 7-33, before beating Albany, 25-18, and then getting stomped by eventual meet champion Rutgers, 9-41.

"Overall, I wasn't very pleased," head coach Jim Peckham said after the tournament. "It wasn't one of our better days."

By Harvard's match against Rutgers--its third match of the day, the Crimson had lost starters in four weight divisions.

Sophomore 118-pounder Craig Vitagliano was sidelined with a knee injury after his first match against Pennsylvania. A combination of knee and elbow problems kept 126-pound tri-captain Steve Aoki out of the Rutgers contest.

Tri-captain John Drossos sat out of the 177-pound match against Rutgers after injuring his leg in the Albany match. And a lingering shoulder problem forced heavyweight tri-captain Bill Counihan out of all three matches of the day.

The Crimson's contest with Penn saw Crimson grapplers win only two of ten individual matches.

Aoki managed to gain a 13-6 victory over Quaker freshman Michael Gaugler in the 126-pound division and Drossos wrestled a 9-1 win away from Penn junior Derek Pijut.

After a brief respite, the Crimson took to the mat against Albany in what proved to be the most competitive of Harvard's contests.

After being forced to forfeit the 118-pound weight class because of Vitagliano's injury, the Crimson took the next four decisions. Winning for Harvard in this streak were Aoki (10-3), junior Todd Davis (9-6), Yaron Rabinowitz (19-11), and junior Doug Groncki (5-3).

The streak was broken when Crimson sophomore Steve Gerstung was pinned in the 158-pound weight class, giving Harvard a slim one-point lead (13-12) with four matches remaining.

Albany, however, was forced to forfeit at 167 pounds due to an injury of its own, and Drossos and senior Heavyweight Zach Cooper Garnered 6-3 and 5-1 decisions, respectively, to seal the Crimson victory.

This effort seemed to run the Crimson grapplers ragged, though, and while trainer Kate Peck tried desperately to piece the team back together before the Rutgers contest, working miracles was not part of her job description; Harvard faced the powerful Scarlet Knights with much less than a full line-up.

The result was a devastating loss--the Crimson lost eight of the contest's nine matches.

Only Davis could muster a win for Harvard, a tight 6-4 decision.

"They kicked our butt, proper," Peckham said. "I thought we were too defensive. We weren't attacking enough. We had a lot of injuries, but we didn't seem to help our situation."

"It was a tough loss, but we'll recover," Aoki said. "We have a great trainer who'll get us back together for the rest of the season."