It's not heaven, but Iowa is the final destination for six Harvard wrestlers competing this weekend in the NCAA Championships.

The three-day finale tournament that started yesterday in Iowa City features the nation's top wrestlers competing for medals in ten weight classes.

This is the best year ever for the Crimson. Last week it won its first-ever Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA) championship, defeating powerhouse teams like Lehigh and Penn. Co-captain Matt Picarsic and junior heavyweight Dawid Rechul also picked up individual championships.

The Crimson is also the Ivy League champion, and on the strength of those results garnered three automatic and three wild-card bids in this weekend's tournament.

All six Crimson wrestlers competed in first-round action yesterday, and the team finished tied for 31st out of 78 squads after the first session.

Rechul, who earned the Most Outstanding Wrestler award at EIWAs, faced off against Mike Maben of UC-Davis in the first round and won 7-1.

Rechul will have a tough time getting by the second round, however. He will face Garrett Lowney, who is seeded first in the heavyweight division. Lowney is a freshman at Minnesota and won a bronze medal at the Syndey Olympics in Greco-Roman wrestling.

Harvard's other captain, Francis Volpe, will also move on to second-round action in the 184-lb division. Volpe, who competed in the NCAAs in 1998, defeated Rider's Shawn Scannell 7-1. He will face Virginia Tech's Scott Justus, who upset the fifth seed on his way to the next round.