Junior Kevin Kurtz won the 157-pound class and was named Outstanding Wrestler of the Tournament. DeNunzio, Volpe (184-pounds) and Killar (165-pounds) led the team to victory by capturing titles in their respective weight classes.

At the Cliff-Keen Invitational at Las Vegas in early December, Harvard placed ninth out of 43 teams.

The Crimson went 2-2 at the Aloha Classic in Oahu, Hawaii, where it faced four tough opponents. The wrestlers for the tournament, easily dismantling Portland State and Air Force before falling to Purdue and BYU, both ranked in the Top 20.

Despite the loss of Killar, who was out for almost two months, Harvard finished the winter with a 6-4 record. The wrestlers began the second part of the season with solid victories over Stanford and Army in January.

In February, they easily dominated Princeton, B.C., B.U. and Columbia. Yet, the team found more difficulty against Lehigh, Penn, Cornell, and Brown, the conference's top wrestling programs.

Back to full force and with the dual meet season behind them, the team headed to West Point, N.Y. in the beginning of March for Easterns. In its best finish in Crimson history, they returned home boasting third place overall and nine top-six finishes. A second place finish by Soltis and individual titles by DeNunzio and Killar earned the trio a trip to NCAA Championships. Penn again commanded the tournament, followed by Cornell.

"One of the biggest achievements of the team is placing nine out of 10 wrestlers in the top six in the EIWA," Weiss said. "That shows how we have grown in the past five years. My first year here we had wrestlers place sixth in the EIWA. Now we have the whole team placing."

DeNunzio and Killar easily swept through all competition. DeNunzio's victory was special cause for celebration, because it was the first time a Harvard wrestler won two consecutive EIWA championships.

Pinning his first two opponents in under a minute, DeNunzio eventually won the title with a 6-4 victory over Ben New of Cornell, ranked No. 12 nationally. His sheer domination in the tournament earned him the Sheridan Award, given to the wrestler who gets the most falls in the shortest amount of time.

Killar proved to be in top form in his return to the mat after being sidelined with a rib injury. He dismantled his opponents and won the championship with a 9-4 victory over No. 10 Rick Springman of Penn.

"Our dual meet record was not stellar this year because of injury and other setbacks," DeNunzio said. "But, I would sacrifice every dual meet for the end result. A third place finish at Easterns was truly an accomplishment."

Although the success of the season leaves the program with much to look forward to, the team will also suffer irreplaceable losses with the graduation of DeNunzio and Friedman. The two were in Weiss' first class and have been the key to the team's transformation.

"I can't say enough about the impact Joel and Dustin have had on this program," said Weiss. "They have raised the bar for the rest of the team to follow. It will be extremely hard to say goodbye."

"Next year's team will be very good. Although we lose Dustin and Joel, we get Ed Mosley back from his year off. We also are bringing in another outstanding recruiting class. We are gearing up for another record-breaking year," he added.