TBT: February 13th 1981: Big Day For Big Red Wrestling

The weekend of February 13th, 1981 was very eventful for the Cornell Men’s Wrestling team. On Friday they defeated the University of Pennsylvania team 32-13, and then the following day they won against both the teams from Princeton, with a score of 20-15, and James Madison 24-19. The Ivy League wins brought their record to an undefeated 4-0 and a total season record of 11-3-1. This impressive showing was led by co-captain Gene Nighman, who continued his undefeated season and brought his record to 14-0 with a win in the 150-lb. win in all his matches. The other Big Red co-captain, Sam Edwards, also won his three contests in which he played in the 126-lb. matches against Penn and James Madison, and the 134-lb. bought against Princeton. Mark Harbold also won all three of his matches in the 118-lb. weight class.

Another Big Red Wrestler who swept the weekend was Kevin Troche, who fought in the 158-lb. matches and pinned his Penn opponent. In the 142-lb. weight class, Karl Mulle won two of his matches and drew the third. Although this seems like a dominant performance, going into the final matches against James Madison, Cornell was down 19-15, but Bob Wirth was able to win by default and win nine points. Then Marty Majeski won by a 7-2 decision in his heavyweight match to secure the win for the team. This performance allowed the Big Red Wrestlers to secure a 2nd place finish for the season in the Ivy League. Unfortunately, they were only able to tie for 33rd place in the NCAA this year.