By ryan February 13, 2001
When senior wrestler Jim Stanec was asked to describe how he felt about the team’s performance this past weekend, he didn’t need to peruse through Webster’s to find an accurate adjective. Unadulterated anger was Stanec’s emotion of choice, and rightly so after Cornell missed out on a chance to sew up the Ivy League title when it lost to Harvard, 28-13, on Saturday. Though the Red laid waste to Brown, 40-6, on Friday night, it will be the team’s trip to Boston that leaves a bitter taste in its mouth and disheartening visions of what could have been dancing through its head. “I’m pretty mad,” Stanec said. “We had [the Ivy title] locked up. “It fuels me to destroy the next person I wrestle.” Having knocked off defending conference champion Penn earlier in the season, the Red paved itself a clear path to this year’s crown, only to have Harvard come along and set up an insurmountable road block. “It was really disappointing,” said head coach Rob Koll. “If there was a ball used in wrestling, all the bounces would have gone Harvard’s way. We didn’t create any breaks [for ourselves].” “We just had a bad day,” remarked Tom Waldron. After digging itself an early six-point hole against Brown, Cornell reeled off 40 straight points to smother the Bears. Wins by Alejandro Alvarez, Byron Warner, Waldron, Gabe Webster, Leo Urbinelli, Clint Wattenberg, Stanec, and Randy Stout as well as a forfeit in the heavyweight class gave the Red its third straight Ivy win. But any headway the Red had made in Providence quickly evaporated the next day against the Crimson. Harvard struck in the first match of the day when Wattenberg was upset in the 165-lb class by Pat O’Donnell. And though Stanec won by disqualification in the 174-lb class, the Crimson then swiped the next four matches, accumulating a string of momentum that the Red could never overcome. “We didn’t step up and match [Harvard’s level],” Koll said, adding, “We gave up some big points to them. “It wasn’t as if a lot of matches couldn’t have gone the other way.” “Harvard matched up really well against us,” Waldron noted. “Guys who could have won didn’t.” Waldron and Stanec fared the best for the Red during the weekend, each winning both their matches. Waldron, at 141 pounds took apart nationally-ranked David Dies of Brown, 7-3. Meanwhile, Stanec cruised to a 15-5 victory over the Bears’ Karl Rittger, who was the second-ranked wrestler in the East last year. “It was big for Tom [since] he’s a freshman,” Koll said, adding, “Stanec has wrestled tremendously all season.” If there’s any solace to be found in this weekend’s results, it’s that the Red’s split still keeps it in a three-way tie at the top of the Ivy leaderboard, along with Harvard and Penn. A win against Princeton in two weeks would assure the Red a piece of the conference title. And although a share of the championship may be a let down from winning it solo, Koll won’t deny that it would still be a satisfying consolation. “It’s like kissing your sister,” he said, “but in this case she’s really hot.”Archived article by Shiva Nagaraj
By ryan February 13, 2001
Willard Straight Hall was evacuated for more than two hours yesterday morning due to a grill fire in the Ivy Room which spread into the ventilation system and caused the temporary closure of the Ivy Room, Okenshield’s and Cascadeli. The fire began at approximately 11:15 a.m. in the short order grill area of the Ivy Room when hamburgers that were being prepared on the grill for lunch caught on fire. The fire got carried away into the ventilation system, according to Eileen M. Hughes, executive chef of campus life dining. This activated the fire alarm and sprinkler system at which time the entire building was evacuated. No one was hurt, she said. Yesterday’s fire is the third one in less than a year that occurred in the Ivy Room, according to Raymond Wheaton, Ithaca fire marshall. The most recent one occurred last week on the same grill. Employees got the fire under control with minimal damage, and continued to operate the grill. While the exact cause of yesterday’s fire is yet to be determined, it is known that the fusible links inside the ventilation system did not work properly in the Ivy Room, he said. “The fire never got out of the area,” Wheaton noted. A grill fire occurs as a result of too much grease or fat collecting on spaces designed for that purpose, which catch fire and burn. The fat acts as a fuel, and if the fire gets out of control, the fire gets sucked into a ventilation hood, according to Barbara Snell, a manager at Willard Straight Dining. In this situation, there is a fusible link that is supposed to melt at a certain temperature and release a chemical to put out the fire. The fusible link worked properly on the sixth floor, but failed to work in the Ivy Room. “There is a problem here someplace … it may be a lack of maintenance and third party problems,” Wheaton added. Currently, the biggest issue after the fire concerns the fan motor system which needs to be repaired and sent out of town, he said. Other affected areas include the washing and ventilation systems, two cash registers which melted and the top floor of the Straight, which suffered a considerable amount of damage. “A lot of the infrastructure will have to be repaired,” Wheaton said. He also noted that the way the firemen accessed the ventilation system was by taking off wooden panels and concrete on the fifth floor. As a result of the fire, both the Ivy Room and Okenshield’s were closed until dinnertime last night. According to Snell, due to damage from the fire the Ivy Room will, until further notice, only serve cold food, salad bar, deli and grab-and-go stations. Both dining halls share a ventilation system and dishwasher, and consequently, only paper goods will be utilized until the dishwashing system is repaired. Okenshield’s was able to serve hot foods last night, as a result of the food deliveries from Robert Purcell and Jansen’s dining facilities. “They [The dining facilities] are being supportive of our dilemma in the interest of customer service,” Snell said. “This will go on as long as needed until the ventilation system is fixed.” The food that was left during the evacuation of the Straight was discarded, in accordance with the department of public health. Other food was protected by the cooking staff prior to leaving the building. The Tompkins County Health Department arrived on the scene yesterday and assessed the food and checked its temperature. Hughes added that “People left a lot of personal things in the dining room.” Anyone still missing belongings should contact a manager in a Straight dining facility. Jonathan Lewinsohn ’02, was eating lunch in the Ivy Room when the fire occurred. “It was really scary and there was tons of smoke throughout Willard Straight,” he said. “Some people actually grabbed their plates and ate their lunch outside.”Archived article by Rachel Pessah