{"id":459269,"date":"2010-03-22T15:37:59","date_gmt":"2010-03-22T19:37:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/?p=41266"},"modified":"2010-03-22T15:37:59","modified_gmt":"2010-03-22T19:37:59","slug":"taking-the-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/459269","title":{"rendered":"Taking the title"},"content":{"rendered":"

In his last collegiate match, Crimson wrestler J.P. O\u2019Connor<\/a> \u201910 capped off a dominant season and career at Harvard by taking the 157-pound national title at the NCAA Championships in Omaha, Neb., on Saturday (March 20).<\/p>\n

The No. 1 seed, O\u2019Connor wrestled his way into the final against Cal Poly\u2019s (California Polytechnic State University) Chase Pami. Despite falling behind 2-0, the Crimson grappler dug deep, and came back against his seventh-seeded opponent to take the match and the title, ending his season a perfect 35-0.<\/p>\n

After being named an All-American as a freshman and sophomore, his junior season came to a disappointing end with an early exit in the NCAA Championships. But that was last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always a battle and struggle,\u201d said O\u2019Connor in a press conference after the match. \u201cYou always have those negative thoughts, but this year I did a good job of keeping those thoughts out of my head. Having my coaches support me and how [hard] I worked, I felt no one could stop me.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor becomes only the second Crimson wrestler to be named All-American three times, joining Jesse Jantzen \u201904 (2002-04), Harvard\u2019s most recent national champion.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just trying to follow in the footsteps of former Harvard national champions, John Harkness and Jesse Jantzen, while creating my own path,\u201d he said. \u201cI looked up to Jesse; as great of a wrestler as he is, he is even a better person. I consider it to be an honor to be mentioned in the same sentence with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Starting the season ranked in the top five nationally at 157 pounds, O\u2019Connor plowed through his competition, outscoring his opponents 51-10 overall to finish with 132 career wins \u2014 tying Jantzen for the most in program history. And with his 35-0 mark, the senior achieved something even Jantzen couldn\u2019t do \u2014 complete a season undefeated.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just had the fire and determination to win it this year. I truly believed that I could win it during my sophomore and junior years, but it just didn\u2019t turn out that way, which was disappointing. I tried to turn it into a positive, and thought about it every day,\u201d said O\u2019Connor.<\/p>\n

It has been a tremendous career of firsts for the senior out of Oxford, N.Y. In addition to being Harvard\u2019s first undefeated national champion, he also became Harvard\u2019s first freshman All-American in 2007, and is the first grappler to win multiple Ivy Wrestler of the Year honors (2008, 2010). And there is being first all-time in wins. Not a bad career indeed.<\/p>\n

Although the grappler is hanging up his Harvard singlet for good, the human evolutionary biology major with medical school ambitions may not be done on the mat just yet. After achieving perfection in college wrestling, O\u2019Connor has his eyes set on international wrestling.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would love to continue my wrestling career,\u201d O\u2019Connor said. \u201cIt\u2019s always been a dream of mine, and I can\u2019t think of anything better to represent the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

With his r\u00e9sum\u00e9, he can do it. Med school can wait.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In his last collegiate match, Crimson wrestler J.P. O\u2019Connor \u201910 capped off a dominant season and career at Harvard by taking the 157-pound national title at the NCAA Championships in Omaha, Neb., on Saturday (March 20). The No. 1 seed, O\u2019Connor wrestled his way into the final against Cal Poly\u2019s (California Polytechnic State University) Chase […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4175,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-459269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4175"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459269\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}