The wrestlers secured their first Ivy League victory this weekend by defeating Harvard, 33-12, but lost to Lehigh, 33-6.
Brown 33, Harvard 12
"Harvard and us both wrestled with depleted lineups," said Head Coach Dave Amato. "I was proud of our guys of their bounce back from the loss to Princeton."
After the Crimson took the first match in the 125-pound weight class by a 10-5 decision, the Bears (4-11, 1-2 Ivy) bounced back by winning the next three matches, all by fall. The pins by T.J. Popolizio '12, Zach Kulczycki '12 and Phil Marano '13 gave the Bears a healthy 18-3 lead early on in the dual.
"That's being aggressive," Amato said of the pins. "They didn't settle for wins by one or two points. I told the guys beforehand that the team that wins the most falls and majors wins the dual, and they took that to heart."
The Bears continued to control the pace of the dual, taking four out the remaining six matches on the day.
Lehigh 33, Brown 6
The Bears opened the dual on a strong note with a win in the 125-pound weight class, but they couldn't sustain their success for the rest of the meet. The Mountain Hawks won the next six matches until 184-pound Bran Crudden '10 finally broke the Bears' losing streak by narrowly winning his match, 3-2. But it was a costly win for the Bears, as Crudden injured his knee during the match. The injury will likely keep him off the mat this coming weekend, according to Amato.
Crudden's victory was the last win for the Bears of the day, as Lehigh won the final two matches and handed the Bears a 33-6 defeat.
"Lehigh is a better team than us," Amato said of the No. 7 team in the country. "You have to adapt to their pace and wrestle until the last second. Most of the guys wrestled hard the entire seven minutes, not giving up for a major when they were down."
The Bears will leave Thursday night for a pair of Ivy duals in New York. They will travel to Ithaca to challenge No. 5 Cornell on Friday night at 7 p.m. The next day they will face off against Columbia to wrap up Brown's conference season.
