It all turned to ashes on Saturday as the wrestling team blew an early, tenuous lead over Princeton and lost, 17-14, in the final match.

The stake was the Ivy League wrestling championship, and a huge crowd at the IAB found itself embroiled in a tension-filled series of matches that could have turned out so right, but instead turned out so badly.

With Harvard ahead, 14-11, on the strength of Howie Freedman's 6-2 decision over Eric Chase (177), it seemed that victory was in sight. But Paul Padlak (191), wrestling an extremely cautious match, lost a 3-1 decision to Julian McPhillips on a take-down with four seconds to go.

Heavyweight Loss

And heavyweight Bob Panoff suffered an equally painful loss to Oliver Kenen when with 20 seconds to go in a 6-6 match, he went into a clumsy take-down struggle and came out on the bottom.

The heavyweight always takes the lamps in a close meet which is decided on his bout. Panoff, of course, was not the only Harvard man to lose and in fact, he came very close to being the hero in a match that brought the IAB to its collective feet.

The Crimson had got off to a flying art in the meet. Howie Henjyoji (123) it on a display of fine wrestling to defeat Detweiler, 7-0. And Danny Naylor (130) followed him with a far tougher, and thus even more satisfying victory over Geoff Lipsey, 8-6.

Baum Tie

Then when Carl Baum (137) tenaciously hung on for a 4-4 tie with Jim Bedell, it seemed that Harvard was on its way. The teams traded victories in the next two matches--Princeton's fine Paul Arnow walloping Bill Zinn, 12-1, and captain Ed Franquemont returning the favor to Henry McEldowney, 9-1--giving Harvard an 11-5 lead.

But disaster followed. In fact, Freedman's victory was the only other one Harvard got. Chris Wickens (160) lost to Sam Mitchell, 8-4, and Howie Chatterton was bombed by Princeton captain Bryant Crouse, 16-5. It was 11-11. Freedman won the next one, but the finish was all Princeton.