Every wrestling season at Harvard begins with an "If we can only..." and ends with an "If we only could have..." If we can only stay healthy, if we can only keep up our enthusiasm, if we can only beat Cornell--but as yet, the championship season that has loomed for Harvard wrestling the past few years has never come off.

This, by all rights, should be the year. Coach Bob Pickett has eight lettermen returning, and will start an untested wrestler at only one position. His squad is strong, healthy, and experienced.

But things happen to Harvard wrestling teams, things that don't appear in pre-season plans. Last year, things like Howie Durfee's case of pneumonia, defeat by one point at the hands of Franklin and Marshall, or a loss to a weakened Cornell team that should have been beaten all added up to a mediocre 5-5 record and third place in the Ivy League.

This year, Pickett seems to have the material. He has Ed Franquemont at 153 pounds, a smooth, sly junior who lost only one match last year, finished third in the Eastern Intercollegiates, and was by far the team's best wrestler.

Durfee is back at 145, and Captain Tom Gilmore is at 137. Both have experience, good moves, and know how to punish and break down an opponent. Howie Henjyoji, a bouncing packet of pure energy, provides strength at 123. All are lettermen.

Tack Chace, the towering heavyweight, had a disappointing season last year against tough opposition but still has the potential to be one of the team's stars. Chris Wickens, another letter winner at 167, is competent but undistinguished.

Pickett will start a pair of sophomores, and in large part, the team's chances depend on them. Paul Padlak, the captain of last year's freshman team, will start it 160. Padlak had to wrestle as high as heavyweight last year, but still compiled a 7-1 record and finished second in the Freshman Easterns at 147. He has displaced letterman Dave Worcester.

The other sophomore, Bill Malugen, takes the place of graduated Captain Hen Brooks at 191. Malugen, like Padlak, is enormously strong, but has little experience and is the only unknown quantity on the team. Malugen's fortunes may well be the key to how well Harvard will finish this year.

Bing Sung, who has improved rapidly since last year, will start at 130, and Jeff Grant will be at 177. Both have some varsity experience, but neither is likely to turn into an exceptional performer this season.

The match that will make the season, this year as always, will be Cornell. The Big Red wins Ivy League championships with numbing regularity, and Pickett, head coach since 1950, has never beaten them. Harvard's particular albatross is to have to wrestle Cornell immediately after Christmas vacation without the steadying influence of a match or two against some of the League's pushovers.

Pickett picked Columbia as the team's most serious league rival after Cornell, and predicted that Princeton, blessed with a good crop of sophomores, will be considerably improved over last year's sixth place finish. Penn, Yale, and Brown will fight for the crumbs.

Harvard's first test will be Franklin and Marshall on Dec. 11. Last year, they ambushed the Crimson and won 15-14. This season, Harvard will go into the match with open eyes, and the result will probably indicate how the team will fare this season.

The team's first match will be at 7:30 p.m. tonight against M.I.T. in the IAB. The Crimson should have little trouble smashing the visitors from across town.

As for the rest of the season, Pickett has learned, through long experience, not to let himself seem too hopeful. "Cornell still has the edge no matter how you look at it. But if we can just, by chance, knock them off..."