Harvard/Brown Thoughts

Friday night we were in good'ol New Jersey to battle Harvard and Brown in some EIWA action.

While we were prepared once again to enter each match giving up 2 weights via forfeit the wrestling gods felt it necessary to add one more to our forfeit list giving us 3 weights without a wrestler.  Heading into a match down 18-0 is practically impossible to come back from and these duel meets were no different.

Against Harvard we wrestled the best we have all year.  Our team came out fired up and strong and the guys who wrestled took it to their Crimson opponents.  Had we had a HWT and Jake in the line up we most likely would have won this match.  

141-Matt Murray wrestled a tough guy and the son of Blair coach Jeff Buxton.  He was not very strong on the mat giving up the fall in the first period off of an early takedown.

149-Eric Norgard showed us all what he is capable of earning a fall at the very end of the period after a dominating showcase from top.  Eric has been steadily improving throughout the season and I expect great things from this young wrestler over the next few seasons.

157-Captain Matt Gittleman jumped on the grenade for the team here having to wrestle the #1 ranked wrestler in the country JP O'Connor.  Matt made the top ranked Harvard senior earn his victory and fought hard for the team.

165-Anthony Bongarzone looked good on his feet scoring some nice takedowns and then sealed the win with a great showing on top.

174-Matt Fullowan continued to be the "go-to" guy on our team winning in dominant fashion against a game Harvard wrestler.  Matt shut the guy down in all positions and earned his team leading 13th victory.

184-Matt Latessa fought hard against a 2xAA but came up short giving up the fall in the 2nd period.

197-Colin Ely fought hard and mentally broke his opponent in the 2nd period.  he pushed the pace and stayed true to his style of wrestling earning a solid EIWA win.

Against Brown the team came out very flat which is not acceptable.  Our guys need to learn to string 2 matches together and not just wrestle one good match/competition.  Matt Fullowan earned his 2nd win of the day forging the team's first come from behind victory of the season.  We need to see more wins like this if we hope to be competitive over the next few weeks.

As we prepare for our southern road trip things are not looking to get easier.  We have learned that we will be giving up 3 weight classes to forfeits once again and as stated earlier that is almost impossible to overcome in a duel meet setting.  I hope we can get some individual wins in these next 5 matches but as a team I am not expecting to pull off any miracles.  I would like to thank all of the alums, parents, and friends of the program for all the continued support and I promise we are working tirelessly to build and improve F&M wrestling back into a respectable EIWA program.

Coach G