
Jesse Jantzen returned to Harvard last night, fresh off his NCAA title. The Crimson's first national champion grappler in 75 years was met by a contingent organized by the H-Club.
ST. LOUIS—For the first time all year, the normally stoic Jesse Jantzen was finally willing to celebrate.
At the close of his national title-clinching bout, he threw his headgear to the ground and thrust his arms up into the air before running to the side of the mat and jumping into the outstretched arms of his coach, where—for a moment—he looked more like a five-year-old kid than the most successful wrestler in Harvard history.
The No. 1 Jantzen had just ended an incredible career with a 9-3 win over Oklahoma State’s No. 2 Zack Esposito to secure the NCAA National Championship, just the second in Harvard history and the first since 1938.
Jantzen was also named the Most Outstanding Wrestler of the NCAA tournament, the first Crimson grapppler ever to receive the honor.
“I really wasn’t expecting it at all,” Jantzen said about the award. “I had no clue. There were just so many good guys that had real good performances that I was real surprised.”
With the award, Jantzen has now become, “the first Harvard wrestler to...” more times than he can probably count. The “firsts” include winning the EIWA championship three times, becoming a four-time NCAA qualifier and earning All-American honors three time—also an Ivy League first.
Jantzen, who finished 38-1 for the season and 131-13 in his career had a vocal contingent of fans section rooting for him, which included the first Crimson national champion John Harkness ’38, who claimed the title at 175 lbs.
“It’s terrific,” Harkness said when asked about Jantzen’s accomplishment. “Jesse is really an outstanding wrestler. He’s way out of this league.”
Jantzen came out very aggressively and controlled the entire match, scoring five points in the first 90 seconds with a takedown and three near-fall points. The only points Esposito—whose team won the national championship for the second straight year—notched came in the third period.
“It’s kind of funny,” Harvard coach Jay Weiss said. “I asked [Jantzen] what the game plan was, and he [said], ‘I’m going right at him.’”
“I didn’t think it was so much that [Esposito made a mistake going down so early],” said Oklahoma State coach John Smith. “He wrestled a very good wrestler.”
After racking up over two minutes of riding time in the first period, Jantzen chose to start the second on bottom, and scored a one-point escape in the first five seconds. This would be the only scoring of the period, as the wrestlers headed into the third with Jantzen on top, 6-0.
He pushed that lead to a nearly insurmountable eight point gap after scoring another takedown with 1:10 remaining in the match. Still, Jantzen felt that there was never a point where he had secured the victory.
“Esposito’s really dangerous,” Jantzen said. “He’s real good at big point moves. There’s never really a spot where you are real comfortable. He can score or put you on your back at any time.”
Esposito did manage to score some points in the final period, but it was too little too late. The first one came as a result of an illegal hold by Jantzen with :56 remaining in the match, and the second came with :22 left after Jantzen was called for stalling. Both wrestlers had been warned about the infraction in the first period.
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