Wrestling Falls Short at NCAAs

One of the best wrestling seasons in Harvard sports history came to an end over the weekend during the NCAA Championships at the University of Iowa. While the 2000-01 wrestling season will long be remembered for the successful steps of Crimson wrestling program, the ending was bittersweet as Harvard stumbled to the finish, pulling up short against a tough NCAA tournament field.

In a year in which Harvard sent six wrestlers to the NCAAs, early exits plagued the Crimson. Senior captain Matt Picarsic, sophomore Max Odom and freshman Jesse Jantzen all bowed out in the tournament's opening round.

Sophomore Pat O'Donnell was also eliminated in the tournament's first round, falling to Doug Cieleski of Slippery Rock 7-0. However, O'Donnell did escape Iowa with a win, defeating Jed Pennell of Oregon State 6-4 in a "pigtails" qualifying match.

Senior captain Fran Volpe advanced to the second round of competition, winning his first match, 7-1. Volpe fell in the round of 16, losing to Virginia Tech's Scott Justus in a tight 5-4 match. All the Crimson wrestlers except junior Dawid Rechul lost their wrestleback matches. A wrestleback match occurs after a wrestler's first loss, and still allows for the chance of advancement in the tournament.

Rechul made the biggest Crimson impact at the NCAAs, dominating his first-round match over Mike Maben of UCal-Davis, 7-1.

In the next round, Rechul drew a very tough opponent, Minnesota freshman Garret Lowney. Lowney had won a bronze medal at the Sydney Olympics in Greco-Roman wrestling. Rechul lost that match, pinned by Lowney in 3:14.

In his first fallback match, Rechul defeated Jason Cooley of Oregon State in a 2-0 decision. With the win, Rechul was given a second wrestleback match, and he responded with a close 3-2 win over Kevin Hoy of Air Force. That win propelled Rechul into a third wrestleback match against Billy Blunt of Fresno State. Rechul ended up losing that match 16-7 and was eliminated from the tournament.

Had Rechul won one more match, he would have garnered All-American honors.

"Dawid wrestled some great matches," Volpe said. "He had a great weekend."

While the team's performance in Iowa was disappointing, Volpe thought his team enjoyed a successful year, on the whole.

"We accomplished a lot this year," Volpe said. "We set the bar higher for the future of this program."

Indeed, if viewed from neutral glasses at the beginning of the year, Harvard's season would stand out as a first-rate success. Six Harvard wrestlers qualified for the NCAAs. The Crimson won the Ivy League title, the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Assocation (EIWA) championship, and the EIWA's sportsmanship award.

Harvard Coach Jay Weiss was named EIWA Coach of the Year, Picarsic and Rechul won individual EIWA titles, and Rechul was the most outstanding wrestler of the EIWA tournament. With all that success, many Crimson wrestling fans had on rose-colored glasses when they assessd their team's chances at the NCAAs.

"It's a really tough tourney," Volpe said. "You need to be really on top of your game."

Volpe felt that, despite the opening-round losses, the team's performance at Nationals was a success.

"On the whole, we definitely did some things we wanted to do. The wins and losses may not reflect the way some guys wrestled. They competed at a very high level."

In a breakout year for Harvard wrestling, the team performed at a high level all year. Their effort was reflected in the results on every winter weekend save the last one.