No. 8 Walter Peppelman opened up the meet for Harvard in the 157-pound division with an 18-0 technical fall over the Eagles’ Mark Cirello. The win was the co-captain’s 96th of his career.
American’s Phillip Barreiro responded in the 165-pound division with a 9-4 decision over Crimson freshman Devon Gobbo. At 174-lbs., Harvard junior Cameron Croy earned a major decision over Keithen Cast, 14-6, but American’s Thomas Barreiro earned a narrow 5-4 decision over Crimson sophomore Josh Popple at 184 lbs. to bring the Eagles within three points of the lead.
“Two toss-up matches [in 165 and 184] didn’t go our way; that was frustrating,” Weiss said.
The Crimson grapplers hope to find themselves on the right side of those toss-ups Saturday as they travel to College Park, Md., to face Maryland and Stanford.
“I think we can grow from this,” Fox said. “We can learn.”
—Staff writer Michael D. Ledecky can be reached at mledecky@college.harvard.edu