Wrestling Splits At Ivy Dual Meet

In its second match of the day, sophomore heavyweight David Ng secured a victory for the Crimson over Princeton with a 4-1 win in the day’s final bout. Harvard clinched eight out of ten matches in a 27-6 win over the Tigers.

It was a strong finish to a day that began poorly for the Crimson (4-5, 2-4 EIWA), which fell, 24-6, to Penn (7-3, 4-1 EIWA) in its first leg of Saturday’s dual meet.

“Penn was a tough match for us—it was tough for the team,” co-captain Walter Peppelman said. “What happened at Penn was we lost the close matches. The score doesn’t show it, but we were really in that match, and we had many opportunities to win that match.”

Freshman Jeffrey Ott opened the day’s bouts at 125 when he matched up against the Quakers’ No. 20 Mark Rappo, who topped Ott with a 6-3 decision.

The Crimson had similar luck in the second bout at 133, with senior Shay Warren falling, 8-5.

Co-captain Steven Keith secured Harvard’s first win of the day. Keith defeated Penn’s No. 9 C.J. Cobb for the second time this season. The decision brought the score to 6-3 in favor of the Quakers.

“Obviously Steven had a great, great performance against C.J. Cobb, who was ranked ninth in the country at that time,” Peppelman said.

Harvard’s Peppelman snagged the second and final Crimson win over Penn at 157, a 6-0 shutout.

Harvard lost the following five bouts, but allowed only a combined 10 points for the Quakers.

“I just think things didn’t come together for us at Penn,” Peppelman said.

Sophomore James Fox almost edged out No. 9 Micah Burak, leading Penn’s All-American in the second period, but Fox eventually fell to Burak, 6-3.

“We lost a lot of close matches,” Keith said. “Their whole lineup is tough, but if we had taken a few of those close matches back with us, then I think we would’ve been right in there to beat them.”

After falling to Penn, Harvard wrestling shifted its attention to the Tigers and rebounded with a resounding victory.

“We were able to talk about [the loss] as a team,” Keith said. “We realized we didn’t perform our best against Penn, and, you know, we decided to come together to try to turn it around.”

Ott opened the meet again, this time with a 9-3 decision over Princeton’s Max Rogers. The freshman’s win gave the Crimson needed momentum after the preceding loss to the Quakers.

Ryan Osleeb continued Harvard’s success with a 7-2 decision, followed by a shutout from Keith, who blanked his opponent, 8-0.

Princeton finally earned a decision at 149, but Harvard answered with a winning bout after Peppelman forced a technical fall in the second period of his match.

“We learned from [our mistakes] and kind of turned it around for Princeton,” Peppelman said. “We went from being 2-8 against Penn and then going 8-2 against Princeton, which is good. Princeton is a team that beat us a year ago, and yesterday we came out and dominated, so I was really happy with our performance against Princeton.”

Freshman Devon Gobbo widened the scoring gap to 18-3, with a 6-4 decision. Princeton responded with a second and final win in a 7-3 decision at 174 lbs.

Sophomore Josh Popple secured a decision in a comeback in the third period, while Fox easily toppled his opponent in a 10-3 win.

Ng’s 4-1 decision ended the match in a 27-6 Harvard victory. The win sent the Crimson into its Sunday match 1-1 on the weekend.

“After the Penn match we learned that we need to be mentally tougher,” Peppelman said. “A lot of wrestling at the higher level is being focused. It’s a mental game; it’s about 25- to 50-percent physical and 50- to 75-percent mental. Those are the games we won against Princeton, the mental battles, the ones that took place at the end of the match, end of the periods, and overtime. Those are the big adjustments we made. We are going to carry this through until the end of the season, so I’m really excited.”

—Staff writer Kelley Guinn McArtor can be reached at kelleyguinnmcartor@college.harvard.edu. Follow her on Twitter @KGMCrimson.