"The semifinals was one of the best matches I've seen," DeNunzio said. "He had tough competition. Two [of the six] wildcard spots came from that weight class."
In the finals, Soltis was unable to overtake Penn's Andrei Rodzianko, ranked No. 3, and fell, 18-4. Rodzianko would go on to win the Most Outstanding Wrestler of the Tournament as well as the 1999 John Fletcher Memorial Trophy, given to the wrestler who made the greatest contribution to the EIWA tournament.
"Brad was one of the talks of the tournament," Weiss said. "He really opened some eyes. He had a great match in the semis to avenge the loss to Cornell's Greenleaf in the dual meet season, and he kept fighting against Rodrianko."
Matt Picarsic, another sophomore standout, repeated last year's impressive third place performance at EIWAs in the 133-pound weight class. Seeded No. 3, Picarsic quickly shut down Brett Taylor of Rutgers in the first round with a pin at 4:30 before grappling past Zane Stickel of Navy 4-2 in the second round.
Picarsic found stiffer competition in Penn's Jason Nagle, who won 6-1, but rebounded with a 5-1 thumping of Columbia's Nick Fokas to capture third place.
At 149 pounds, arguably the most difficult weight class of the competition because it boasted four of the top twenty wrestlers in the nation, tri-captain Joel Friedman grappled to a fourth place finish. After a first round bye, Friedman--ranked No. 17 and seeded No. 4 in the tournament--came out ready for action against Columbia's Brad Clement. He collected the win with a pin at 4:22 in the match to advance to the semis to face Penn's Brett Matter, No. 4 in the country. Friedman fell to Matter 6-2 then went up against No. 6 Ryan Bernholz of Lehigh. Freidman lost a close 6-3 bout to finish fourth.
Although the losses were disappointing, Friedman's solid performance against the toughest in the nation rounded out what has been a terrific four years with the Harvard wrestling team. The weekend was the final EIWA tournament for both Friedman and DeNunzio, who have become the heart and soul of this Crimson squad. Their impact on Harvard wrestling is one that will endure long after they are gone.
"Joel and Dustin have been the cornerstones of the program," Weiss said. "We went from basically zero to third in the EIWA. It has been neat watching them throughout their careers. They have been a major part of the philosophy of the program--the attitude, the expectations, and the leadership."
At 157 pounds, No. 2 seed junior Kevin Kurtz easily swept by Brown's Chris Ayers 8-0 and Syracuse's Robert Buyea 4-1 in the first two rounds of the weekend. In the semis, Kurtz, who was ranked No. 19 nationally, lost a heartbreaking 2-1 match to No. 14 Yoshi Nakumura of Penn and then fell to Leo Urbinelli of Cornell for a fourth-place finish.
Sophomore Kevin El-Hayek (at 125 pounds), junior tri-captain Fran Volpe (at 184 pounds) and freshman David Rechul (at heavyweight) all had strong performances that earned them sixth place finishes among the conference's best. Sophomore Adam Truitt also wrestled well at 174 pounds, coming close to placing but falling short in a tight 3-2 loss to Columbia's Adam Greco.
"Adam wrestled the best he's wrestled in a Harvard uniform," Weiss said.
DeNunzio, Killar and Soltis now get ready for Nationals, which is held at Penn State on March 18. They will train hard this week then taper as the competition draws near. DeNunzio and Killar are expected to be among the top six seeds in their respective weight classes.
Harvard finished the season with a winning record, and although the dual meets of February did not go as well as the Crimson would have liked, the scores don't do justice to the close battles it had with Penn, Cornell and Brown-all of which could have swung the other way.
The team did extremely well in the tournament competition, placing first at the Ivy Classic to open the season in November, ninth at the Cliff-Keen Invitational and third at EIWAs.
About a month ago, on the eve of Harvard's dual meet with the Quakers, the Daily Pennsylvanian described the Crimson as "always-tough Harvard." After a season of historic success, the grapplers can be proud of the reputation they earned and look forward to giving Penn a lesson or two on toughness in the seasons ahead.