“In the Cornell match, that’s one of the best teams in the country,” assistant coach Sean Arrington said. “Our guys were responding to the challenge, and they wrestled hard.”

HARVARD 24, COLUMBIA 14

Slowly Columbia had crept back into the match. At one point, the Crimson had held a 14-4 lead, but as Johnson prepared to face Austin Coniker, the score stood at 14-10.

That margin, it turned out, was as close as the visitors would get. Johnson reversed the tide with an 8-0 win by major decision, and Dean and Kirby followed with 8-4 and 12-8 decisions, respectively.

Regarding the final result, the final bout of the day didn’t matter. Even though Gajdzik went down 9-0 by major decision, Harvard still exited with a 24-14 victory—the team’s second win in three contests.

“Our team came out firing in that much,” Gajdzik said. “Holistically we looked fantastic.”

Again, the start of the lineup proved successful, as Jaffe and Goldman won to post the only 2-0 records on the weekend. While Goldman triumphed by forfeit, Jaffe earned a 9-4 decision.

In this contest, Ladnier proved victorious as well, winning 18-3 by technical fall. These early results built a 10-point cushion for Harvard and allowed the team to weather a pair of losses by Knight and Bierdumpfel, both by decision.

Also redeemed as Sakmar, who opened the day with a 10-2 defeat by major decision to Johnson Mai.

“We truly do have a great team this year, not only of wrestlers but of people as well,” Gajdzik said. “That’s something we pride ourselves about at Harvard wrestling.”

—Staff writer Sam Danello can be reached at sam.danello@thecrimson.com.