Two days after going down early, coming back quickly, and ultimately falling short against Maryland, the Harvard wrestling team entered a pair of Sunday dual meets in Washington, D.C. with a chance for redemption.

“We were very motivated after the loss to Maryland,” senior Ryan Osleeb said. “The dual was a close, hard-fought bout against a good team, so we came out…with that extra motivation to perform well.”

Redemption came, but it only lasted three hours. After beginning the day with a convincing rout of the Virginia Military Institute, the Crimson suffered another close loss, this time against American University. 

AMERICAN UNIVERSITY 22, HARVARD 19

Wrestling on the Eagles’ home mat in Washington, D.C., Harvard relived the same painful narrative that described Friday’s 21-18 loss to Maryland.

Drop four of the first five bouts. Mount a momentum-swinging comeback. Lose by three points anyway.

“Obviously we are pretty upset with the losses,” co-captain James Fox said. “But in no way are we discouraged or disappointed because we actually performed pretty well. We did a good job, especially in the second half of the lineup, of battling back after being down early.”

Junior Michael Mocco encapsulated the Crimson’s down-up-down storyline. After erasing a 3-1 deficit, Mocco tied the 184 lb. bout at 5-5. However, his American opponent regained the lead with a third-period point to take the match, 6-5, and push the overall score to 22-11.

Mocco’s match came in the middle of a streak of Harvard-won bouts, beginning with the 165 lb. weight class. Sophomore Tyler Grimaldi claimed that one, 11-3. Soon after, freshman Josef Johnson won at 174 lb. thanks to a trio of first-period takedowns.

No. 11 Fox responded to Mocco’s loss by putting on a dominant 18-5 performance that featured a 10-point lead heading into the third period. Senior David Ng followed suit with a bonus-point win.

The going was not always so easy. In the 149 lb. weight class, the Eagles’ Tom Page shut out junior Nick Stager, 7-0. Immediately after, freshman Tyler Tarsi dropped his bout on an early fall, which stretched the Crimson’s deficit to 16 points. The visitors also gave away six points by forfeiting the 125 lb. match.    

Co-captain Todd Preston recorded the lone win of these early bouts. After Osleeb fell 9-0 to the Eagles’ Josh Terao at 133 lbs., No. 16 Preston earned the team’s first points with his 10-3 victory in the 141 lb. category.  

“We are going to have a great week of training,” Osleeb said. “In our mat practice, [we’ll] go over and fix the mistakes we made this previous weekend.”

HARVARD 31, VIRGINIA MILITARY INSTITUTE 12

When the first Harvard wrestler stepped onto the mat at Bender Arena, the Crimson was already behind by six points due to a forfeit in the 125 lb. weight class.

Once the bouts began, however, the final result was hardly in question. On the strength of an overall 16-0 run to start the meet, Harvard turned in a dominating performance against VMI.

“VMI has really tough and strong kids, but we were able to outwrestle them,” Fox said. “We were also able to get a lot of bonus points.”

The match ended with a bang as junior Josh Popple and Ng pinned their opponents at 197 lb. and 285 lb., respectively. These bouts followed Mocco’s 8-7 defeat in the 184 lb. category, which put the overall score at 19-12.

At 157 lb., Tarsi also earned a win by fall after only 49 seconds.

Tarsi’s victory was the final act of the 16-point streak that began with Osleeb’s 6-2 decision over the Keydets’ Hunter Starner in the 133 lb. weight class. Wrestling at 141 lb., Preston contributed another 6-2 win to tie the meet, and Stager forged an overall lead with a 13-5 victory in the 149 lb. category. 

A 11-4 loss by Grimaldi halted the momentum—but not for long. With a 7-5 victory, the first-year Johnson established a 19-9 lead and extended a personal three-match win streak in dual meets.

“We believe we can win,” Fox said. “We’ve proven that to ourselves this weekend in our performance. It’s just going to take a little bit more effort from each of our nine starters…to win those close matches.”

—Staff writer Sam Danello can be reached at sdanello@college.harvard.edu.