Published on Tuesday, December 09, 2003 in the Harvard Crimson
Wrestling Cashes In On Golden Chance in Vegas

By EVAN R. JOHNSON
Crimson Staff Writer

Although it may have been facing some of the toughest competition in the country and in a different time zone, the Harvard wrestling team maintained its pattern of success this weekend.

For the third straight tournament, No. 20 sophomore Max Meltzer (141 lbs.) and No. 1 co-captain Jesse Jantzen (149 lbs.) were the top finishers for the Crimson, coming in fifth and third place, respectively, at this weekend’s Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational.

The prestigious tournament features some of the best wrestlers in the country and allows Harvard to get an early-season evaluation of some of the top-notch wrestlers that the Crimson could be facing in the NCAA championship tournament. Of the 25 ranked teams, nine came to Las Vegas.

“Absolutely, absolutely,” said Harvard coach Jay Weiss when asked if he scouts potential future opponents. “Any national competitions we go to we [scout] for many of the weight classes.”

Jantzen—wrestling up for the last time at 157 lbs.—had just one loss as he went 4-1 over the weekend. The one misstep came at the hands of Illinois’ No. 2 Alex Tirapelle, who decisioned Jantzen 11-4 in the semifinal bout. The drop pitted Jantzen against Missouri’s No. 10 Kenny Burleson in the consolation match, which Jantzen won 6-4, turning in his second straight third-place finish at the Cliff Keen Invitational.

Meltzer’s finish in the top five was particularly exciting because he was one of several Crimson wrestlers who pulled off an upset over opponents from No. 5 Minnesota. In his second match, he decisioned the Golden Gophers’ No. 17 Tommy Owen 6-3, before succumbing to Michigan’s No. 13 Clark Forward. After winning two more matches, Meltzer was slated to face Ohio State’s No. 7 Jeff Ratliff, but his opponent never showed, giving Meltzer an automatic fifth place finish and a 5-1 record for the weekend.

The other Harvard wrestlers to upset a Golden Gopher were juniors Eddie Jones (174 lbs.) and heavyweight Jonas Corl.

Jones won on a 3-1 decision to upset Minnesota’s No. 16 Josh McLay and finished 3-2 on the weekend. Jones managed to bounce back from two matches before, when he had been pinned by Eastern Michigan’s Tim Hoff in four minutes. Jones ended up losing in the quarterfinals to Edinboro’s No. 13 Nate Yetzer.

“I think Eddie Jones had an incredible weekend,” Weiss said.

Corl had an even bigger Golden Gopher upset when he decisioned No. 9 Cole Konrad by another 3-1 decision. Despite the impressive victory, Corl later had to pull out of the tournament due to a neck injury and back spasms.

Harvard nearly had a fourth victory over Minnesota, but 184 lb. senior P.J. Jones lost 2-1 in double overtime to Jon Duncombe.

Still, the Crimson was unable to escape Sin City without its own share of bad luck. In addition to the Corl injury, co-captain Reggie Lee (197 lbs.) was pulled from competition to prevent further aggravating a knee problem that first became an issue in his second match of the weekend. Though he wrestled in a third match, which he lost to Arizona’s State’s No. 5 Ryan Bader in the round of 16—his first in the double-elimination tournament—Weiss decided to allow Lee to rest.

“Obviously he probably could have wrestled,” Weiss said. “I would have loved to have seen him get in a bunch of more matches, but at the same time he’s our only wrestler at that weight class.”

The possible loss of Corl and Lee could prove devastating to the Crimson for team competition. Last year Harvard was particularly vulnerable at the upper weight classes and—with the exception of Corl and Lee—have only two wrestlers listed above 174 lbs. One of those team members, Bode Ogunwole, is a freshman, and the other, sophomore Dan Jones, didn’t wrestle all last year and may miss all of this year due to injury.

—Staff writer Evan R. Johnson can be reached at erjohns@fas.harvard.edu.

Las Vegas Invitational
December 5-6 at Las Vrgas, NV
Team Scores:
1. Nebraska 139.5 14. C Oklahoma 45.5
2. Michigan 133.5 15. Fresno St 45.0
3. Missouri 114.0 16. Wyoming 43.5
4. Arizona St 102.5 17. Air Force 39.5
5. Illinois 102.0 18. Montana St 39.0
6. Ohio St 82.0 19. W Virginia 37.0
7. Minnesota 70.0 20. Cal Davis 35.5
8. Cal Poly 63.0 21. Geo Mason 35.0
9. Bakersfield 61.0 21. Adams St 35.0
10. Purdue 59.5 23. Brown 31.5
11. Edinboro 57.5 24. E Michigan 31.0
12. Harvard 51.5 24. S Colorado 31.0
13. N Dakota St49.5

Championship Finals:

125_Jason Powell, Nebraska 4-2 over Mark Moos, Michigan
133_Mark Jayne, Illinois 7-6 over Darrell Vasquez, Cal Poly
141_Robert Becker, George Mason 6-3 over Matt Murray, Nebraska
149_Travis Shufelt, Nebraska F5:29 over Jeremy Spates, Missouri
157_Alex Tirapelle, Illinois 4-2 over Ryan Bertin, Michigan
165_Matt King, Edinboro 3-2 over Pat Owen, Michigan
174_Ryan Lange, Purdue 3-2 over Ben Askren, Missouri
184_Travis Pascoe, Nebraska 13-5 over Blake Kaplan, Ohio St
197_Emmett Willson, Montana St 4-2;ot over Ryan Bader, Arizona St
285_Tommy Rowlands, Ohio St 11-5 over Greg Wagner, Michigan

Consolation Finals (for third through eighth):

125_Efren Ceballos, Bakersfield 9-2 overf Heath McKim, Air Force; Jared Haberman, Western St MFF over Christian Staylor, Arizona St; Bobbe Lowe, Minnesota 9-4 over Tony Franco, Cal Poly
133_Derek Moore, Cal Davis 5-1 over Kortney Lake, Adams, St; Matt Sanchez, Bakersfield 5-2 over Erkin Tadzhimetov, Utah Valley St; Matt Keller, Nebraska 12-6 over Caleb Scheaffer, Montana St
141_J P Reese, Missouri 7-2 over Clark Forward, Michigan; Max Meltzer, Harvard MFF over Jeff Ratliff, Ohio St; Blake Gunter, Wyoming 3-0 over Tommy Owem, Minnesota
149_Ryan Churella, Michigan 5-4 over Patrick Williams, Arizona St; Casey Olson, Fresno St 4-2 over David Dies, Brown; Matt Cox, Cal Poly 5-3 over Adrian Austin, George Mason
157_Jesse Jantzen, Harvard 6-4 over Kenny Burleson, Missouri; Matt Lebe, West Virginia MFF over Scott Garren, North Carolina St; Brian Stith, Arizona St 3-2 over Justin Gabbard, Air Force
165_Shawn Silvis, 10-6 over Levi Prevost, Wyoming; Jacob Volkmann, Minnesota 14-1 over James Holmes, Eastern Michigan; John Clark, Ohio St 11-5 over Chris Stith, Virginia Tech
174_Nate Yetzer, Edinboro 5-3 over Thad Pike, North Dakota St; Pete Friedl, Illinois 9-3 over Ron Renzi, Arizona St; Jason Tapia, Central Oklahoma F1:16 over Tim Hoff, Eastern Michigan
184_Matt Pell, Missouri 6-2 over Ryan Halsey, Cal Poly; Brian Glynn, Illinois 4-1 over Benjamin Wissel, Purdue; Nick Frost, Arizona St 10-7 over Josh Weitzel, Michigan
197_B J Padden, Nebraska F3:11 over Matt Monteiro, Bakersfield; Landon Seefeldt, Fullerton MFF over Brian Kreamer, North Dakota St; Jason Potter, Illinois 3-2 over J D Bergman, Ohio St
285_Cole Konrad, Minnesota 3-2 over Cain Velasquez, Arizona St; Joe Hennis, Edinboro and Dustin Sullivan, Adams St N/A; Clint Walbeck, Fresno St MFF over Jonas Corl, Harvard