Caputo Returns in Midland Championships

Harvard wrestling returned to action this week, but the grapplers still seem to be on vacation. The Crimson traveled to Evanston, Ill. for the Midland Championships yesterday without two of its top competitors, and the seven Harvard wrestlers in attendance struggled through the two-day tournament.

Bur co-captain Louis Caputo (184 lbs.)—wrestling in a Crimson singlet for the first time this season—had by far the best showing. The fifth-year grappler reached the quarterfinals en route to a fifth-place finish, meaning that Caputo has placed every time he has attended the meet.

“Louis was awesome,” Harvard coach Jay Weiss said. “This was his first tournament [back with the team] and if he was a little rusty, he didn’t show it.”

Fourth-seeded Caputo found himself thrown into the fire early with back-to-back Big Ten opponents, but the experienced grappler found his footing. He dispatched Michigan State’s Currant Jacobs with a 5-1 decision before ousting Iowa’s Grant Gambrall, 3-2.

Unfortunately for the Harvard All-American, his quarterfinal bout featured eventual champion John Dergo of Illinois, who not only bested Caputo, 6-3, but also went on to top the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds in his weight class to earn first.

Undaunted, Caputo raced through the wrestleback bracket with a 12-0 major decision, followed by a solid 3-1 win over eighth-seeded Jerome Ward. But the Crimson grappler’s progress once again came to a halt as he faced longtime nemesis Phil Keddy of Iowa.

Prior to yesterday’s match up, Keddy had twice beaten Caputo, 3-2, and the Hawkeye standout made it a pattern, earning his third-straight victory by that score.

“[Caputo] knows his losses were close,” Weiss said. “He’s right in there with anybody…Hopefully we’ll get [Keddy] when it counts.”

Caputo earned a measure of retribution in his fifth-place bout, dominating a rematch with Keddy’s teammate Grant Gambrall. The Crimson standout earned a 5-0 decision to cap his Midland career, finishing with the third-highest win total all-time in the tournament’s 184 lb. weight class.

The championships did not yield as strong results for the rest of the squad, particularly in the absence of co-captain J.P. O’Connor and sophomore Walter Peppelman. O’Connor was taking a scheduled rest while Peppelman is out for the rest of the season with an injury.

But Weiss hoped that Harvard’s younger grapplers would take advantage of the high-level tournament, gaining experience against some of the nation’s best competitors. Sophomore Bryan Panzano (174) and rookies Steven Keith (125), Tony Buxton (141), and Adam Hogue (165) all drew bouts against grapplers ranked sixth or better, with Pazano and Keith enduring first-round matchups against the top seeds in their weight class. None of the underclassmen could manage an upset, and Weiss maintained that key experience will arise not from big victories but from the squad’s reaction to adversity.

“They are very talented freshmen, we know they are capable, but I can’t [assess their progress] until we see how they respond to the tournament,” the coach said.

While these difficult contests kept most of the Crimson out of the win column, a couple of wrestlers proved their mettle. Sophomore Spencer DeSena (285) notched his second victory of the season and Hogue (8-6) continued to show flashes of his potential, earning a fall in just 2:27 against first-round opponent Mike Kelly before dropping a bruising contest to fourth-seeded Nick Marable of Missouri.

“Hogue lost 2-0 and he was in the bout until the final seconds,” Weiss said. “You hope he walks away thinking, ‘That’s good, that gives [me] confidence.’”

Although these young wrestlers showed promise, from Harvard’s perspective the Championships belonged to Caputo (5-2), who reminded the squad just how valuable his presence will be.

“It means a lot [to have him in the lineup],” Weiss said. “He wrestles with so much intensity, it’s hard not to be inspired by it…He does nothing flashy, he’s just a workhorse. It’s so good to have him back, making everyone better like he always does. With him and J.P. O’Connor, it’s going to be a fun ride.”

—Staff writer Max N. Brondfield can be reached at mbrondf@fas.harvard.edu.