American Drives Crimson From Capital

In a match that the Harvard wrestling team intended as a brush-up before Ivy League dual meets, American University brushed back the favored Crimson 26-13.

Before Harvard (0-1), ranked No. 22 in the country at the start of the day, faced the Eagles (2-4) in Washington, D.C. in its first dual meet of the season, the team had already blended veteran dominance with its considerable freshman talent in several tournament successes.

Yesterday, the Crimson struggled through a sluggish performance in the nation’s capital.

“I don’t think we wrestled stupid,” tri-captain Max Meltzer said. “We just weren’t hungry and we were not wrestling well in general.”

Specifically, Crimson head coach Jay Weiss pointed to Harvard’s inadequate number of take-downs as a measure of the team’s lack of aggression. Between ten players, the team managed only seven take-downs, well short of a number that usually lies in the twenties for the team.

“When the whistle blows, we have got to ready for battle, and we weren’t today,” said Crimson head coach Jay Weiss. “This is a team effort and we need to be more aggressive.”

In ten total bouts, Harvard managed to win only four, but the Eagles ran up the score by winning three matches with bonus points. In contrast, only freshman J.P. O’Connor dominated his opponent in an 8-0 major decision that earned the Crimson its sole win with bonus points all afternoon.

“If it’s a loss, we’ve got to keep it close,” Weiss said. “In retrospect, it kind of got out of hand. Any time you’re going to give up bonus points, that’s going to hurt the team score.”

Thanks to O’Connor’s victory, Harvard managed to narrow American’s lead to four team points as the Eagles remained on top 11-7. Yet, after the three consecutive losses that followed, the Crimson found itself again out of contention, trailing 20-7.

Just two matches later, the result was official, as American’s Josh Glenn needed only 20 seconds to pin junior Jonathan Butler, the third and final of Harvard’s falls yesterday.

Although tri-captain Bode Ogunwole’s match now became irrelevant to the team outcome, the senior All-American’s 4-2 win against No. 8 Adam LoPiccolo extended Ogunwole’s perfect record this season to 8-0. Ogunwole and LoPiccolo had met twice before, with Ogunwole emerging victorious from both encounters by narrow margins.

“He was in control,” Meltzer said. “That was one of the positive things in the match.”

Meltzer and No. 9 Louis Caputo, a sophomore, contributed the remaining two Crimson wins by 3-2 and 6-0 scores.

Yet Meltzer still classified most of the team’s wins, including his own, as sub-standard performances.

“The team as a whole, even the guys who were winning, didn’t necessarily look that great,” Meltzer said. “We can’t pinpoint the guys who gave up those falls. As a team, we take responsibility for each and every one of us.”

Harvard faced challenges unique to dual meets for the first time all season. Dual-meet rules permit only one hour between weigh-in and competition. In larger tournaments, competitors usually enjoy a two- to three-hour gap. Some on the team seemed to have difficulty managing the challenge effectively.

“All these guys have done it before, and I don’t want to use this as an excuse,” Weiss said. “If they as an individual did not respond, shame on them.”

Despite the failure yesterday, Meltzer saw the match as a learning experience that will only help the team improve when it begins the more meaningful part of its schedule within the Ivy League.

“We’re going to be a completely different team come January or February,” Meltzer said.

But first, the Crimson will continue its tournament schedule at the Midlands Championships on Dec. 29-30.