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.
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