Grappling with Perfection

Senior Dustin DeNunzio, All-American and two-time NCAA qualifier, works toward his goal of becoming national champion

by Becky Blaeser '98

Dustin DeNunzio isn't a perfectionist. At least not in the conventional sense.

He doesn't kick himself for his mistakes, but the thing that makes this Harvard wrestler stand out is that he never, ever makes the same mistake twice. Maybe that's one important reason the senior tri-captain is an All-American and a two-time NCAA qualifier.

After a freshman campaign that earned him Ivy League Rookie of the Year honors, DeNunzio enjoyed a stellar sophomore season, during which he garnered First Team All-Ivy League recognition, placed third at the EIWA Tournament, and qualified for the NCAA Championships. It was a season that most regarded as triumphant, but DeNunzio saw it differently. So differently, in fact, that he decided to leave school for a year to train and focus exclusively on his wrestling.

"When I went to the nationals, I knew that I should have done better," DeNunzio explains firmly. "And there was no way that I was going to go through the last two years of my college career without accomplishing my goal."

His goal, simply stated, is to become Harvard's third-ever national champion. In that pursuit, DeNunzio returned to his home in Palm Harbor, Fla., and, under the guidance of a personal coach, began an intensive regiment of training that would last 15 months. When he wasn't traveling around the country competing in more than 70 open wrestling tournaments, DeNunzio was training two times a day with the best talent the wrestling world had to offer.

"Some of the guys [I trained with] I knew from being around wrestling, and I just called them and said, 'I'll buy your ticket if you want to come down and train with me,' and that worked out really well," says DeNunzio. "Most of them were older and training for the World Games."

Before returning to Cambridge last fall, DeNunzio made a final trip -- this one abroad to Russia. Harvard assistant Granit Taropin, the former Soviet National Team coach, coordinated a six-week training session between DeNunzio and Albrus Tadeev, the Ukrainian national champion.

When he came back to campus, there was no doubt that DeNunzio was one step closer to establishing himself among Harvard's all-time great grapplers. He compiled a dominating 26-3 record during the regular season and then cruised through the EIWAs with a first-place finish in the 134-pound weight class-becoming Harvard's sixth individual titlist to gain an automatic berth in the NCAAs.

"Dustin was extremely talented to begin with, but he lacked confidence," says head coach Jay Weiss. "He traveled during that year off to a number of open tournaments and wrestled some of the best kids in the country, and he did really well.

"It gave him a lot of confidence, and when he came back, it was unbelievable the difference I saw in him."

After storming through the first three rounds of NCAAs, DeNunzio's bid for a national championship fell just short when he was ousted by defending champ Jeff McGinnis of Iowa, who was in the midst of his own remarkable 75-match winning streak. The two grapplers were locked in a 2-2 tie with one minute remaining in the third period, but McGinnis scored a decisive takedown to advance to the finals and leave DeNunzio one match shy of his ultimate objective.

"My goal was to be the national champion, not just an All-American," says DeNunzio, who despite the setback still finished sixth to become Harvard's first All-American in 15 years. "That was my goal for the season, but the cards didn't play out that way. I dominated my first three matches and then lost by two points [to McGinnis]."

But the thing about DeNunzio is he doesn't dwell on the past. Following the setback to McGinnis, he "narrowed down what it would take to be a national champion," then spent two weeks this past summer training with the World Team at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.

"It's not that he isn't proud to be an All-American," explains Weiss. "Dustin knows that very few people are able to place in the top eight year in and year out, and literally we were a minute away from being in a national final. We were that close. Being an All-American is a great accomplishment, but he wants more."

Not all of his success has been individual. DeNunzio, a two-year captain, has also been part of the renaissance of the Crimson program. Through a combination of great coaching (Weiss' staff also includes 1996 Olympic gold medalist Kendall Cross and Andy McNerney '83, the program's last All-American before DeNunzio), outstanding recruiting, and wrestlers with both skill and incredible commitment, Harvard now ranks among the nation's top wrestling schools

"Dustin has all the technique, the mental game, and the belief that he can beat the best in the world, but the big thing about him is his leadership," says Weiss, whose team placed 29th at last year's NCAAs. "He and Joel [Friedman] were my first freshmen as a coach, and they were the cornerstones in terms of setting the tempo and expectations of the program."

With one more season remaining in his collegiate career, however, DeNunzio has one important goal to accomplish, and he won't be happy until he reaches that pinnacle.

The perfectionist in him won't allow it.