Junior Reggie Lee is back in his natural weight class of 184, after earning an All-Ivy Honorable Mention and taking fifth at the EIWA meet last season at 197. Lee has already met success at East Stroudsburg, where he placed fifth.

“After the first tournament, I could just feel the difference,” Lee said. “I feel a lot lighter and stronger, not afraid of getting crushed by people when they take shots.”

At 197, senior Brad Soltis returns to Harvard wrestling, with NCAA experience from his sophomore year. Soltis is currently injured, but looks promising for matches to come.

“Brad is someone we’re expecting a lot of good things from,” El-Hayek said. “He’s definitely going to stand out.”

For the heavyweights, Rechul came within one round of earning All-American status last year, and looks to continue moving up as one of the nation’s top wrestlers. Rechul was named Most Outstanding Wrestler at the 2001 EIWA Championships. He earned second place and the most pins in the tournament with four at East Stroudsburg.

Junior Joseph Linhart adds depth for the Crimson, along with freshman Jonas Corl, who will wrestle at 197 this weekend but looks to be a heavyweight in the long run.

In addition to his points on the mat, Rechul and El-Hayek serve as leaders in the Crimson tradition of wrestling.

“We try to model our team to be a real close-knit group,” Lee said. “Kevin and Dawid have been in this program for quite a while and they know the importance our coaches and team place on togetherness.”

Harvard will not have an easy ride to the championships of March. The Crimson travels to Dallas, TX in early January to battle No. 2 Oklahoma, Wyoming and No. 4 Oklahoma State in the Lone Star Duals.

“We look forward to our trip to Dallas,” El-Hayek said. “We get to wrestle the top-ranked guys in a dual match setting.”

“Pretty much every single starter is going to take on one or two people in the top five,” Lee said. “Going into our dual meet season, it’s pretty great to get tough opponents like that in a neutral setting.”

Following Harvard’s trip to Dallas, the Crimson have a series of dual meets at home, where preseason EIWA favorite Lehigh is sandwiched on January 27, between meets against the U.S. Military Academy on January 26 and Sacred Heart of February 2. Harvard faces another tough EIWA rival in No. 9 Penn on February 8. The Crimson hasn’t beaten Penn in an Ivy dual meet in over 10 years.

“Lehigh and Penn are traditionally our rivals,” Lee said. “One of our goals is definitely to take down those two. Cornell is also tough, even though we beat them last year. It should be an interesting meet, and a long bus ride.”

The Cornell meet is on Feb. 16. EIWAs begin on Mar. 9 at Lehigh.

Despite the fact that Harvard is the defending EIWA champion, it is tied for fourth in preseason EIWA rankings behind Lehigh, Penn and Rutgers..