This is a year for the little man in Harvard sports. Bobby Leo, Vic Gatto, and Tom Choquette formed one of the smallest Ivy backfields last Fall; the basketball team is falling back on its guards for support; and almost every other sport has less-than-huge athletes leading the way.

It's no less true in the one sport where the little man has always been a fixture. The wrestling team--driving hard for its first Ivy League championship--has been led to its current 5-2 record (3-0 Ivy), by two of the toughest, most determined little men it's ever had.

Howie Henjyoji (123), veteran senior, and Danny Naylor (130), a sophomore already established at the top, have been doing a job for the wrestling team in meet after meet of this momentous season.

More than Weight

* With two of New England's top heavyweights scheduled at the end of this year's M.I.T. meet. Henjyoji used the cradle (see pictures) for a 2:21 pin and Naylor scored a 9-3 decision When the smoke cleared, Harvard had a 22-13 win despite pin and decision losses by heavyweights in the last two matches.

* Against Rutgers last Friday, Henjyoji pulled a third-period pin; Naylor got one at 1:13. Harvard won that one. 19-17, on the extra points provided by the pins.

* And against Cornell--the meet that broke a Big Red 31-meet streak and set up the Crimson for the championship run--it was Henjyoji and Naylor making tough matches look easy with 5-0 and 5-2 decisions which eventually proved the margin in the 20-14 win.

* * *

Henjyoji has the cradle and Naylor has the lateral drop. With these two moves, they've accounted for six pins in the seven dual meets this year, and at a time when the pin is becoming more and more a rarity in college wrestling.

The nine minutes of college match time--compared to six minutes in high school--that confront a wrestler have changed many an aggressive wrestler into a staller content to get ahead in points and artfully ride out time for a decision.

But neither Henjyoji nor Naylor will settle--especially this year, when so much is riding on every victory, every point.

With both men, aggressive wrestling has become a necessity, partially because of their heights (even for light-weights they are noticeably shorter than most opponents). To escape the groping arms of lankier, taller wrestlers, they have to shoot their own moves first.

"Personally, defensive wrestling is something I can't do very well," says Henjyoji. Since he has four pins to his credit already, no one wants Henjyoji to try, but he does concede some advantages to "stall" wrestling.

"Guys like that win national championships," he feels. They are men who maintain themselves through a grueling tournament while more aggressive wrestlers make fatal slips at points which stallers, take advantage of for winning points.

But Henjyoji loses "a sense of competing" when he tries merely to ride out a decision. And when he loses that edge, he loses the match.