Harvard Wrestling To Host Five Home Duals in 2012-13

The Crimson has crowned at least one All-American in each of the last seven years (Gil Talbot).

Complete Schedule

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - Jay Weiss, the David G. Bunning '88 Head Coach of Harvard Wrestling, has announced team's 2012-13 schedule which features trips to the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational and Midlands Championships, as well as five home matches at the Malkin Athletic  Center.

"I am excited about this group. I could see it coming last year, but we just didn't catch a break with key guys getting injured," Weiss commented. "We still finished strong with two All-Americans and both Steven and Walter return. We have experienced veterans who are great leaders of this program mixed with very talented group of underclassmen. Enthusiasm is definitely infectious this year as we have high goals both on and off the wrestling mat."

The Crimson will start its season Nov. 11 with a road trip to Johnson City, N.Y. for the Binghamton Open.  Last year the Crimson had six wrestlers earn a spot on the podium with three finishing in the top three of their weight class.  Junior Paul Liguori took home the highest honor out of the group with a second-place finish at 149 lbs.

Harvard will compete just a week later at the Keystone Classic (Nov. 18) where in 2011 Walter Peppelman and Steven Keith led the way with first and second-place finishes, respectively.  Peppelman earned the tournament title with a 4-0 decision over Princeton's Daniel Kolodzik while Keith fell just short to Penn's Bryan Ortenzio to finish as the runner-up.

The Crimson then has a break before heading out west for the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational (Nov. 30-Dec. 1). Harvard finished 15^th in the team competition last year and had both Keith and James Fox finish with a spot on the podium earning third and seventh-place finishes, respectively.

Following its trip to Las Vegas the Crimson will enjoy a holiday break before heading to Chicago for the Midlands Championships (Dec. 29-30).  Keith was the team's top finisher in 2011 with an eighth-place finish. 

The Crimson will wrestle on home turf for the first time against Rider on Jan. 5 at the MAC. Less than a week later Harvard will travel south to face off against American (Jan. 11) before taking on Maryland and Stanford the following day.

Harvard is back home the following week to face EIWA opponents Cornell ( Jan. 19) and Rutgers (Jan. 20). The Crimson then travel  to West Point to take on Army (Jan. 26) before squaring off with Penn, Princeton and Lehigh (Feb. 9-10) on the road.

The Crimson will finish off the regular season on familiar ground, with a home match against Brown and a trip to Boston University (Feb. 16).  Harvard will wrap up its season at the MAC  against Columbia (Feb. 22).

The EIWA Championships will be held March 8-9 on the campus of Rutgers University. Harvard placed 10^th at last year's event with five Crimson earning a spot on the podium.  The 2012 NCAA Championships are scheduled for March 21-23 at the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa.  Last year, Harvard boasted two All-Americans as Peppelman and Keith earned a pair of eighth-place finishes making the 2011-12 season the seventh consecutive season that the Crimson has had at least one All-American.

2012-13 Wrestling Schedule

Andrew Chesebro

Assistant Director of Athletic Communications

Harvard University

(617) 495-7692

GoCrimson.com

@HarvardCrimson