Coming off three disappointing losses the previous weekend, the wrestling team had a daunting challenge on Friday, facing No. 22 University of Pennsylvania at the Pizzitola Center. Despite suffering a 26-10 loss, the Bears finally righted the ship the next day, dominating in a 32-6 win over Delaware State University and a 36-7 rout of Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling League rival Princeton University. The Bears are now 2-5 in the EIWL and 5-7 overall.
The Saturday morning win over Delaware State jumpstarted Brown. The Hornets forfeited four matches, of which the Bears only accepted two, and the lone Hornets win came when Branden Stearns '09 was forced to retire with an injury.
"It was nice to go out and dominate someone," said Head Coach Dave Amato of the Bears' first victory in five matches. "(Delaware State) is a young team and they didn't have enough guys ... but it was good for us. A lot of guys were able to get some work in this weekend."
After taking six-point forfeits in the first two matches with the Hornets, John Triggas '09, Shawn Cully '06 and co-captain Shawn Kitchner '07 racked up 13 more points, putting the match out of reach.
The Bears used the morning's momentum to their advantage in the afternoon's match-up with the Tigers. Jeff Schell '08 pinned his opponent at 125 pounds with 48 seconds left in the first period, and the Bears rolled from there.
"We wanted to get out there and put some heat on (Princeton) early in the match," said co-captain Michael Savino '06. "When you get in a slump where you aren't wrestling well, it's tough to get out of it. Even if you're dropping close matches you want to be wrestling well. We wanted to be aggressive early in matches and Jeff did a great job of that."
Dan Appello '08 followed Schell's effort with a 5-2 decision at 133 pounds, but Mark Savino '08 lost a major decision at 141 pounds, making the score 9-4. The loss could have been worse for Savino, who narrowly avoided a pin late in the match that would have pulled the Tigers within three points.
Mike Ashton '06 quashed any notions of a Princeton comeback with a 15-0 dismantling of Andrew Sichel at 149 pounds for five team points, and Michael Savino followed with a major decision at 157 pounds.
Ashton scored a two-point takedown early in his match and was subsequently bloodied by a shot to the face. With a plug in his nose to slow the bleeding, Ashton almost managed to pin his opponent on two different occasions.
"I was just going with the flow of the match early," Ashton said. "But our goal was to be aggressive early and get up on them. Winning can have a bit of a snowball effect where it rubs off on everyone down the line."
At the heavyweight position, Levon Mock '08 closed the match nicely with a pin halfway through the first period.
"I thought we wrestled hard all weekend," a pleased Amato said. "Princeton's not the caliber team we had been wrestling against, but Schell had two good matches this weekend, I thought Mike and Mark Savino both wrestled well, Shawn Kitchner had a good match to get us going (on Friday). We bounced back from that Lehigh shellacking nicely."
The only setback of the weekend was Friday's loss to Penn in a match where the Bears once again hung with a difficult opponent but came away empty. Mark Savino lost with less than 30 seconds left in overtime at 141 pounds, when his opponent scored the winning takedown with Savino apparently out-of-bounds. Michael Savino lost his match when his opponent turned a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 win after scoring a takedown that seemed to have been a false start.
"Sometimes you have to wrestle against the (referees) too," Savino acknowledged.
However, the Bears fought back and took three of the last five matches from the Quakers, culminating in Schell's last-second 3-2 win at 125 pounds.
"Those last few wins (against Penn) were huge," Ashton said. "There is a big difference between losing big and coming back to make it close."
With momentum earned from this weekend, Brown returns to action next weekend against Harvard University and Sacred Heart University in Providence.
