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No Fatigue For Grapplers; Peckham's Troops Sweep Tri-Meet

Crimson Stops Penn, Springfield and Albany State in Wrestle-a-thon at the MAC

The Harvard wrestling team doesn't believe in physical exhaustion.

After winning two matches on Friday, the Crimson came back the next day to demolish Penn, 27-9, sack Springfield, 28-18, and total Albany, 22-19, in a wrestle-a-thon yesterday at the Malkin Athletic Center.

"I thought the team as a whole wrestled their best technical match that they have wrestled this year against Penn," Harvard Coach Jim Peckham said. "I couldn't have asked for a better performance."

"We were on an emotional high wrestling Penn," Fred Jenkins said. "Everyone wrestled their hearts out."

At 118 pounds, Nick Cianciola started the Crimson heartbeat, pounding Brad Esson, 19-9.

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The beat went on with 134-lb. Sam Cole, but the tempo slowed down a little bit, as Cole slaved out a 4-2 win. Cole started out furiously with a take-down, but after Rick Dabbs escaped, he had trouble getting the rhythm back.

"I wrestled terribly," Cole said. "I came out in the first 15 seconds really hard, and then I just shut down. My shots started getting really poor. I started diving for the mat instead of shooting on a level--straight in. Mentally, I was out of it."

Jumping up the scale, Jenkins outconditioned Josh Perelman, 7-6. The 167-pounder started out behind, and though he had little problem escaping Perelman's take-downs, Jenkins couldn't bust through for his own.

"His first few take-downs on me I was a little bit inhibited to fight it off," Jenkins said. "Because I was nervous I did some stupid things in the beginning that I shouldn't have done. Once I started getting in my double and driving, I was able to take him down."

Although the Crimson expected less from Springfield in the next match, the team had more reason to be nervous.

Cianciola started the match on a high point again, pancaking Jeff Yabion to a double grape-vine for a first-period pin.

Harvard sailed through the light-weight matches, but then things started to fall apart.

Aaron Danzig was holding his own in the 142-lb. class when he got caught in the second period in a headlock, and got pinned. Next up, 150-lb. Mike Costanza found himself in a cradle and regained his composure too late, falling, 8-2.

At 158-lbs. Captain Tim Kierstead was easily controlling Nick Leary, 7-3, when he fell into a head-lock, and also got pinned in the second period. Harvard was losing for the first time in the match. Things looked bleak.

The pressure was on for 190-lb. Joe Biland to come up with a win. But he did more than just win. He pinned Roger Hill in the second period.

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