Sports

Wrestling: SWR grad headed to NCAAs for fourth straight year

HARVARD ATHLETICS PHOTO | Steven Keith celebrates a win after a match for Harvard last season.

A two-time state champion at Shoreham-Wading River, Steven Keith (’09) earned his fourth straight trip to the Division I NCAA Wrestling Championships for Harvard University. Keith finished fourth Friday at the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association Championships while wrestling at 141 pounds to clinch a spot in the NCAAs.

The NCAA Championships are March 21-23 at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa.

Keith opened the EIWA Championship as the second seed in his bracket. He won a 6-0 decision over Columbia’s Alec Mooradian and a 9-3 decision over No. 7 Anthony Salupo of Lehigh to advance to the semifinals. He lost 6-3 in the semis to the No. 3 seed, CJ Cobb of Penn.

Keith wrestled twice more in the wrestlebacks, beating fourth-seeded Trevor Melde of Rutgers, 6-0, before falling in the consolation finals to top-seeded Michael Nevinger of Cornell, 3-0, to settle for fourth.

Keith was one of three wrestlers for Harvard to qualify for the NCAAs. Harvard finished seventh as a team in the EIWA Championships.

Keith has the most wins this season of any Harvard wrestler with a 28-8 record. He recently surpassed 100 career wins and is now 105-51 in his four-year collegiate career.

Last season Keith earned All-America honors with an eighth-place finish at the NCAAs. Keith has recorded more than 20 wins in each of his four seasons at Harvard. Keith is currently ranked 10th in the nation at his weight by InterMat Wrestle.

The 105 career wins puts Keith seventh all-time on the Harvard career win list. He’s two behind sixth place. Former Shoreham wrestler Jesse Jantzen, a 2004 Harvard grad, is tied for the school record for career wins with 132.

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