Harvard Wrestling Opens Season Strong at Journeymen Collegiate Classic

On a rainy Sunday morning in Bethlehem, Pa., the Harvard Crimson wrestling team opened its 2025-2026 season with a strong showing at the Journeyman Collegiate Classic, leaving with the 157-pound title for captain Jimmy Harrington and the 125-pound runner-up position for sophomore Logan Brzozowski.

The Crimson, under the veteran leadership of head coach Jay Weiss and assistant coaches Christian Monserrat, Muzaffar Abdurakhmanov, and Bekzod Abdurakhmanov, arrived at this round-robin early-season tournament with an experienced core and a promising freshman class. Racking up 18 individual victories from six major decisions and two falls, including eight bonus-point wins, the Crimson kicked off its season with early momentum.

Harrington went undefeated on the day, earning an easy 13-1 major decision over Army’s Owen O’Connor and a 12-7 victory against Binghamton’s Fin Nadeau. He narrowly defeated Penn State’s Joe Sealey 10-9 in the final bout to claim the title, managing to take down his opponent with less than a minute remaining in the third and final period for the win.

“I think just staying stingy and staying in the fight,” said Harrington on overcoming his opponent’s offensive pressure. “Trusting that my attacks are going to come through eventually.”

Harrington’s performance in the tournament builds on his success from the 2024-25 season, when he qualified for the NCAA Championships.

Several other Crimson wrestlers turned in notable performances during the tournament. At 125 pounds, Brzozowski opened with an important 15-3 major decision over Penn’s Brady Pruett, whom he had lost to twice in the 2024-25 season but was able to subdue in what his head coach referred to as a “big improvement.” He followed with a 10-3 victory over Binghamton’s Carson Wagner before falling 9-2 to Indiana’s Jacob Moran to claim the second-place title.

“There’s always ways to get better,” the sophomore said while reflecting on his performance. “I’m really going to focus on, ‘How do I open up a guy and find my shots and find my takedowns?’”

Freshman Sidney Tildsley also made waves, going 3-0 in his debut for the Crimson at 141 pounds and earning two major decisions over Army and Lehigh as well as a 6-5 decision over Navy. Junior Jaden Pepe competed at the same weight and finished 2-1 for the day, managing to earn a pin in the first period of his third-round matchup with Binghamton’s Jack Kazalas.

At 174 pounds, sophomore Haden Bottiglieri went 2-1, recording wins over both Penn and Rutgers. Competing at the same weight in his collegiate debut with a 2-2 record was freshman Ben Smith, whose performance was highlighted by a quick fall in the first minute of his matchup against Sacred Heart and a 10-0 major decision against Hofstra.

The results of this tournament offered an early look at Harvard’s depth and balance across weight classes, featuring a mix of returning starters and standout freshmen. Now in his 32nd season as head coach, Jay Weiss is focused on developing both veteran leadership and new talent to sustain the program’s competitiveness in the Ivy League and EIWA conferences for future tournaments and the upcoming dual season.

“I feel our offseason training really played into kind of where we are right now,” commented Weiss about preparing his team for the season. “It was a very good culture from the start, and that’s always what you need before you do anything else.”

The Crimson will compete next at the Keystone Classic in Philadelphia on Nov. 23rd at the University of Pennsylvania.