In his first match against Sahl during the consolation round of the the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational, Sahl dominated, pinning Corl after going up by 12 points. But in the second meeting, Sahl only won by three points in a tightly contested match.

“You can see in his last couple of matches that he’s growing a lot more confident,” Weiss said.

Part of Corl’s early struggles may have been due to the huge jump he had to make to the heavyweight class after competing at the 197-lb. position last year.

The loss of All-American heavyweight Dawid Rechul ’02 to graduation left a huge gap in the Harvard lineup. After watching Corl wrestle at heavyweight in a tournament last year, Weiss felt that the sophomore was suited to fill Rechul’s shoes.

“His style is better for the heavyweights,” Weiss said. “When he goes back down to 197, his quickness doesn’t help him as much. He wrestles much better against the bigger guys.”

Corl’s lack of size isn’t without precedent. The legendary Rechul weighed only slightly more than Corl and won the conference title twice and placed seventh in the national tournament.

That gives Weiss all the more reason to be satisfied with his less-than-heavy heavyweight.

“He’s doing incredibly well,” Weiss said.