Unfortunately, the Harvard wrestlers don't have the luxury of being the home team very often. In fact, they only wrestle here two weekends the entire season. So, it was a rare, yet exciting occasion Friday and Saturday as Boston College, Princeton and Penn came to town and an amazing group of talented seniors bid farewell to the Malkin Athletic Center in their final home matches.

"These seniors have a tremendous work ethic that has paved the way for others," said Harvard Coach Jay Weiss. "Their fingerprints are all over this place, for they are responsible for raising the bar of this Harvard program."

Wrestling in front of a packed and rowdy house for all three meets, the Crimson went 2-1 for the weekend, sweeping its first two meets, but falling short in its effort to thwart their longtime Quaker rivals. The team cruised by Boston College Friday afternoon by a score of 25-3 before easily dismantling Princeton 37-3 later that night. Yet, the Crimson was unable to carry that momentum into Saturday's meet against Penn as they fell short to their Ivy nemesis 24-13.

"We had a very intense week of practice and I was worried they would be tired but on Friday they showed they weren't, they were physical in every aspect," Weiss said. "On Saturday we lost some close bouts. We are still not getting the breaks but we are not creating them either."

It all started Friday afternoon as the Eagles found themselves up against an unstoppable Harvard squad. The meet only included eight matches instead of the typical ten because B.C. did not have wrestlers for the 125-pound and 133-pound weight classes. At 141-pounds, freshman Nick Picarsic posted a solid 6-0 victory.

This was followed by three consecutive defeats handed to B.C. grapplers by freshman Max Odom (149-pounds), senior Kevin Kurtz (157-pounds) and senior Nate Ackerman (165-pounds) with the scores of 10-1, 8-1 and 15-4, respectively. At 174-pounds, senior co-captain Ed Mosley secured an easy 11-5 win, while at 184-pounds freshman Reggie Lee had a tremendous 16-1 victory. Bumping up to the 197-pound weight class, freshman Pat O'Donnell rounded out the scoring by taking his opponent 13-6.

Sophomore heavyweight Dawid Rechul faced the most difficult competition of the day against sophomore Antonio Garay, ranked No. 11 in the NCAA. Despite a large weight advantage for Garay, Rechul put up a strong showing and made Garay battle the entire seven minutes for his 9-6 win.

Later that night, the Crimson showed no signs of letting up. With a slightly different lineup, the wrestlers still thoroughly outwrestled the Tigers.