Since early November, the Harvard grapplers have been competing against some of the top contenders in the nation, from its travels to the Cliff Keen Invitational in Las Vegas and the Aloha Classic in Hawaii, to more recent match-ups against Ivy strongholds such as Penn and Cornell.

Yet, while the team has certainly established itself as a threat in the collegiate circuit, the challenge is not over. The grapplers face their most important battle this weekend, as they travel to West Point for the EIWA tournament in hopes of earning a berth to Nationals, held later this month.

"I think we're ready," Coach Jay Weiss said. "We have a great shot for pushing guys to the finals."

Coming off a dual meet season hampered by injuries, the Crimson used the two weeks since their last home meet against Brown and BU to get everyone healthy and individualize their training. The team goes to the tournament in full force, with a strong lineup led by senior tri-captains Dustin DeNunzio, Joel Friedman, and junior tri-captain FranVolpe.

Last year, the team finished fourth overall, the highest in the school's history. And although they are ranked fourth going into this year's tournament, they hope to--and are certainly capable of--exceeding last year's performance. Ranked ahead of them are Lehigh, Penn and Cornell, respectively. Though all pose strong competition for the Crimson, Coach Weiss considers the Quakers especially tough because of their thorough lineup.

"Penn has a lot of depth and balance from top to bottom," he said.

Individually, the Crimson heads to Army with six wrestlers in the top eight for their respective weight classes in the preliminary rankings (as of Feb. 28).

At 133 pounds, sophomore Matt Picarsic, who rounded out an outstanding freshman campaign by finishing third at EIWAs last season, goes into the weekend ranked fifth. He looks to avenge his loss to Livio DiRubbo of Brown two weeks ago, as well as continue his victorious ways against Nate Rupp of Cornell and Nick Fokas of Columbia.

DeNunzio--who was EIWA champion last year before going on to earn All-American at Nationals--was given a No. 1 ranking in the 141-pound weight class. His toughest competition will come from Ben New of Cornell, who he handed a 7-2 loss last month, and Mark Piotrowsky of Penn who he has already beaten twice this season by scores of 5-3 and 10-5.