After starting the season with a less-than-stellar record and several injuries, the Harvard wrestling team has finally recovered and is now peaking at the most crucial time of its season.

This weekend is the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA) championship tournament, which will be held in Ivy-champion Cornell’s brand new Friedman Wrestling Center. The competition is the finale of a tumultuous season.

The Crimson began the year with high expectations. Ranked third in the EIWA and 25th in the nation, the team felt its strong senior core and possible future Olympian—junior co-captain No. 3 Jesse Jantzen (149 lbs.)—would lead it to its second-ever conference championship.

But then again, things don’t always turn out as expected.

Early, season-ending injuries to several wrestlers, including sophomore Dan Sirotkin, fellow 197-pounder freshman Danny Jones and junior Max Odom (157 lbs.)—who reinjured the same shoulder that forced him to take a year off the 2001-02 season—stifled the Crimson’s chances to explode out of the gate.

The loss of such important team members was made all the more devastating when the team began the season 0-5, including a loss to a consistently weak Army team.

But when Harvard returned to Cambridge in early February for its first home meet—against East Stroudsburg and No. 24 Hofstra—it finally turned a corner. Led by such late-season standouts such as freshman Max Meltzer (133 lbs.) and senior Robbie Griffin (165 lbs.), the Crimson dominated both teams and left the Malkin Athletic Center confident.

Since that day, the Crimson has gone 4-3 to close out the year with an overall record of 6-8 and a 3-5 conference mark.

But with the weekend’s competition at hand, Harvard has shifted its focus to upstate N.Y.

“Everything depends on this weekend,” said Harvard coach Jay Weiss. “You can throw everything else out because the only thing that matters is this Saturday and Sunday.”

Currently sixth in the conference, the Crimson will have its work cut out. The 13-team conference boasts 18 nationally-ranked wrestlers this season—including Jantzen—and three nationally-ranked teams, No. 4 Lehigh, No. 5 Cornell and No. 21 Penn.

These three teams finished in the top three spots last year, with Harvard trailing as a close fourth.

Still, the tournament is often more about the success of each wrestler than team achievements.

“Bottom line, it is individual,” Weiss said.

Part of the reason the season-ending tournament is so important, is its implications for the NCAA tournament.