HARVARD 21, BROWN 11
The Crimson took down the Bears (8-8, 2-6), 21-11, winning seven out of ten bouts on the day.
The lineup began with Ott wrestling at 125 against William Waterson. Ott secured a 6-0 decision for Harvard, his fourth straight win over the past two weekends.
“I knew 125 was a big match with Jeff Ott,” Crimson coach Jay Weiss said. “I wanted him wrestling first, and he wrestled awesome, so that was a big one for us… he’s a fire plug. He goes hard all the time.”
After falling to Brown in a close 3-2 decision at 133, Harvard took back the lead after Keith registered his 100th win at 141.
“I mean [Keith] always controls bouts,” Weiss said. “He did a great job…it’s his 100th win, you know that’s pretty special. That’s a lot. To get 100 wins in college, that’s a lot. Walter and Steven doing it this year, that was tremendous.”
Preston extended the Crimson lead, 9-3, with a strong 11-5 win over the Bears’ Zach Rees.
Peppelman secured a 9-2 decision at 157, bringing his season record to 12-2.
“Walter, obviously he’s a leader,” Weiss said. “He did a great job and went and got a good win.”
Brown responded with a major decision over freshman Devon Gobbo, decreasing the scoring gap to a five-point difference.
When Croy snagged another win for Harvard, the Bears answered with a decision of their own over Mocco. The bout was Mocco’s first college match.
“Mocco at 184, he’s not our starter,” Weiss said. “[It’s the] first time he’s wrestled all year…he wanted to jump out, and he asked to wrestle, and I couldn’t ask for anything better going up against their best guy. He did a nice job and he hung in there.”
Sophomore James Fox and freshman Nick Gajdzik rounded out the Crimson victory, each securing decisions against his respective opponent. Fox’s match came down to the final seconds, but the sophomore was able to finish out the bout with a win, 3-2. Gajdzik’s 5-2 decision brought the final score to 21-11.
—Staff writer Kelley Guinn McArtor can be reached at kelleyguinnmcartor@college.harvard.edu. Follow her on Twitter @kgmcrimson.