Harvard Wrestling Pins Down Brown in Regular Season Finale

Harvard wrestling closed out its 2025-2026 regular season with a 26-16 thrashing of Brown last Sunday, riding a blistering opening stretch featuring two consecutive falls in the first two bouts and a tech fall at 174 pounds. The Crimson clutched a victory in its final Ivy League dual, fostering momentum before it heads to the Ivy League Championship.

Just a year ago, Brown (5-9, 0-5 Ivy) handed Harvard (6-6, 2-3) one of its most lopsided defeats in the history of this rivalry with a 36-6 trouncing that snapped what had been a promising three-match winning streak for the Crimson. This Sunday, Harvard avenged this blowout loss on the Bears’ home turf. Now, with the Ivy League Championships looming just ahead, the Crimson is positioned in the middle of the standings alongside Penn (7-4, 2-3) and Princeton (4-11, 2-3) while Brown finds itself in dead last.

Eager to set the tone early for the Crimson, RPI No. 19 sophomore Logan Brzozowski and junior tri-captain Coleman Nogle struck hard with pins at 125 and 133 pounds, respectively, launching Harvard to an early 12-0 lead before the Bears could find their footing.

Brzozowski opened up multiple early takedowns against Brown freshman Chase Yasutake at 125 pounds before converting his next takedown off of an outside single into a pin. The victory by fall was Brzozowski’s first of the season.

Nogle also took early control, picking up a couple of takedowns, some back points, and a reversal before cashing in a pin of his own in the second period. Crimson head coach Jay Weiss expressed extreme satisfaction with his team’s winning performance, including these critical bonus points from Nogle and Brzozowski.

“As a team, we wrestled very hard, and that stood out at this time of year,” Weiss said. “I’m very happy, and I think we can even do better, which is going to be fun to watch.”

Although Harvard senior Dante Frinzi fell to Brown’s No. 32 freshman Khimari Manns at 141 pounds to give the Bears a moment of hope, No. 33 junior tri-captain Jack Crook delivered an 8-5 decision over No. 29 Brown senior Austin McBurney to push Harvard further up to a 15-3 team score.

The Crimson momentum continued as No. 7 tri-captain Jimmy Harrington notched a 5-0 decision over Bears junior Ethan Mojena. Unfortunately for Harvard, junior Joe Cangro couldn’t close out a tight 5-3 decision with a win, but his loss was swiftly forgotten as 174-pound sophomore Haden Bottiglieri came up with a huge tech fall with just seconds left in the third period to throw another five points onto the Crimson team score.

Harvard junior Matt Walsh kept the points coming for the Crimson, picking up a decision over Brown sophomore Thomas Sandoval to tally Harvard’s sixth win of the day.

The Bears salvaged wins at 197 and 285 pounds, but the deficit proved insurmountable against a Crimson squad that had done its damage early and decisively. Looking forward, Weiss hopes to see more of this energy on the conference and national stages.

“This is the beauty of the sport,” Weiss said. “I think they really did a good job training throughout from September on, so I’m looking forward to seeing how it pays off at the championships.”

With the regular season now complete, Harvard will turn its attention to the Ivy League Championships on Sunday, March 8, at Columbia’s (11-3, 5-0) Levien Gymnasium in New York, N.Y. Matches can be streamed on ESPN+ beginning at 10:00 a.m. EST. The victor of each weight class at this tournament will earn an automatic berth to the NCAA Division I Men’s Wrestling Championships later in March.

—Staff writer Rani J. Amin can be reached at [email protected].