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Wrestling Wins Pair, Slips vs. No. 17 Cornell

Grapplers Down B.C., Columbia in Home Debut

Another highlight for the Crimson was the performance of junior tri-captain Fran Volpe at 184 pounds. Although he won 4-2, the score didn't reflect his complete domination over Big Red senior Ottie Pendleton the entire match.

At 197 pounds, Brad Soltis put up a great fight against senior Bob Greenleaf, bringing the match to 4-4 in the third period to send it to overtime, before falling 6-4.

"We fought well as a team," said DeNunzio. "We wrestled hard but fell a little short."

Although the Crimson was unable to pull out the final victory over Cornell, its next Ivy opponent wouldn't be so lucky. Even after a physically and mentally fatiguing day on Friday, the Crimson was still able to garner a 24-9 victory over Columbia.

"We wrestled well but a few matches were closer than they should have been," Picarsic said. "We had to stay focused coming back from a hard loss."

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At 133 pounds, Picarsic's reversal move during sudden death handed his opponent a 3-1 defeat and capped off his successful weekend. DeNunzio had no problem handling his opponent at 141-pounds and easily cruised to a 14-4 win.

In a close match at 149 pounds, Friedman turned on the heat in the third period to earn the 1-0 victory. Wrestling at 165 pounds, Kurtz completed his perfect weekend with a 3-2 win, as did Volpe, who dismantled his foe 11-2 in the 184-pound class.

After his heartbreaking loss the night before, Soltis came out strong at 197 pounds and won his match, 7-6. And finally, freshman Dawid Rechul put the final stamp on the beating with his 15-1 thrashing at heavyweight.

The team is entering its final weekend of dual meets and will host Brown on Friday night and B.U. Saturday night. After beating Brown for the first time last season, the grapplers hope to forge a winning tradition. Weiss also used to coach for the Bears.

"Brown is a big match. They have a lot of talented wrestlers," Picarsic said. "We need to wrestle well."

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