Wrestling Rebounds with Weekend Sweep After Tough Penn Defeat

By DAVID A. WEINFELD

CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

The Harvard wrestling team suffered a disappointing loss to No. 8 Penn on Friday night, falling 27-6, but rebounded nicely on Saturday, crushing Princeton 28-9 and Boston College 31-0.

Harvard 28, Princeton 9

Harvard won eight of its 10 matches against Princeton.

Crimson sophomore sensation Jesse Jantzen—ranked No. 8 in the country—pinned his opponent in the 149-lb. class, Milo Adams. Jantzen took down Adams early in the first period, turning him and pinning before two minutes had passed.

“Everyone looked to come back hard after the loss to Penn,” Jantzen said.

Harvard senior heavyweight and captain, No. 10 Dawid Rechul, recorded a technical fall over John Looke , 15-0, and junior Robert Griffin (157 lbs.) recorded a technical fall over senior Albert Pendleton, 22-3.

Only junior Patrick O’Donnell and sophomore Brandon Kaufman lost saturday. O’Donnell, wrestling up a weight class at 174, fell to No. 10 Greg Parker 8-2. Kaufman, also up a weight class at 165, lost to senior Jonathan Bunt, 5-3.

“I felt comfortable from neutral, on my feet,” O’Donnell said. “It was a bizarre match, but it doesn’t affect my seedings that much.”

Harvard 31, BC 0

Harvard totally demolished BC, sweeping all six of its matches. Five out of the six matches did not even go the distance.

BC is dropping its program next year, weakening the team considerably for the rest of this season.

Freshmen Joseph Turilli (149 lbs.) and Jonas Corl (197 lbs.) recorded pins. 157-lb. junior Nicholas Picarsic and 174-lb. freshmen Eddie Jones recorded technical falls.

Junior Kendrick Saddler won when his 149-pound opponent withdrew midway with an injury.

Freshman 165-pounder J.P. Jacquet won his match decisively, 20-0.

Penn 27, Harvard 6

Harvard suffered several close defeats to Penn, ultimately dropping eight of ten matches in the 27-6 loss.

Only Jantzen and co-captain Kevin El Hayek (133 lbs.) were victorious for the Crimson.

Jantzen’s victroy was particularly significant, as he defeated No. 10 Joe Henson 1-0.

“I wrestled conservatively, tried not to make any mistakes,” Jantzen said. “In a match that close, anything can happen, but I always felt like I was in a good position.”

The only point came in the second period on a Jantzen escape. The victory puts Jantzen in a good position in the rankings.

“Things are looking bright for me in the conference,” Jantzen said. “If I can beat [Henson] again, I can win the conference and go to the NCAAs.”

El-Hayek, for his part, defeated Jeff Eveleth decisively, 6-0, taking Eveleth. down in the first and third periods.

Rechul lost a close match to freshman Matt Feast, ranked No.11 in the nation.

After a scoreless first period, a Rechul reversal and near fall gave the Harvard senior a 4-2 lead. A subsequent reversal and near fall by Feast turned the match around, giving the Penn rookie a 7-4 lead heading in to the third period.

A Rechul escape and a stalling call on Feast narrowed the gap to 7-6, but that was as close as Rechul would come.

At 165 lbs., Crimson junior Pat O’Donnell lost a double-overtime heartbreaker to No. 9 Josh Henson, Joe’s brother, 5-4.

After tying the score 4-4 near the end of the third period, O’Donnell held Henson scoreless through the first overtime period. In the second overtime, O’Donnell found himself on top of Henson, but an escape by the Penn senior decided the match.

“I wrestled as well as I have all year,” O’Donnell said. “Ealier this year [Josh Henson] beat me 11-3. I made some adjustments, made progress to attain the level I need to be at for the Easterns.”

“We wrestled hard, better than the scores showed,” Jantzen added. “Several matches could have gone either way, so it wasn’t as disappointing.”

Harvard also fell to Penn last year, but still went on to win a share of the Ivy title, as well as the EIWA championship.

“Last year we lost to Penn and wrestled worse than we did this year,” O’Donnell said. “This shows us what we need to do to win a championship.”