The wrestling team kicked off its dual meets season on the first weekend of the new year. At the five-team Lone Star Duals, the Bears dominated Utah Valley State University, 30-10, and won a narrow victory over United States Air Force Academy, 19-15. But the team fell to University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill and the No. 14 University of Wisconsin, 28-3 and 34-6, respectively. The action did not stop there as the Bears traveled to Lewisburg, Pa., to duel against Bucknell University on Jan. 18. Facing Bucknell, their first conference competition, the Bears fell to the Bison, 21-12, in a tug-of-war grudge match. The next day, the team wrestled against Franklin & Marshall College and the host school Rutgers, where the Bears split again, with a win over Franklin & Marshall, 28-13, and a defeat of Rutgers, 26-9.
Tri-captain Jeff Schell '08 led the team with a 6-1 record overall in the 133-lb weight class. His sole loss was to David Marble from Bucknell, the No. 15-ranked wrestler in that weight class. In the dual against Air Force, Schell and tri-captain Mark Savino '08's wins-by-fall got bonus points for the team, which were the key to Bruno's eventual victory. Despite his winning record, Schell thought he wrestled rather poorly.
"Although I won the matches, I left the day thinking that there are a lot of things I need to practice. (As for) the match against Bucknell, I won't lose to (Marble) again. It was close in the beginning but I made a few mistakes and he was a good enough opponent to capitalize on those errors," Schell said.
As one of the captains, Schell thought the team wrestled well at the Lone Star Duals. He said small errors were what cost the team victories. "Wisconsin is perceived by everyone as a better team because it is a big school, but we lost a lot of close matches because we made small errors. Same thing goes for North Carolina. But the scores don't really show that," he said.
In the 189-pound weight class, Matt Gevelinger '09 also performed well over the break. After splitting at the Lone Star Duals, he went 3-0 in the duels against Bucknell, Franklin & Marshall and Rutgers. Gevelinger attributed his success to being more confident on the mat.
"Confidence goes a long way," Gevelinger said. "We work as hard as any other team. Knowing that we are in good shape, we have to take the intensity from practice to the competition."
Looking ahead to this weekend, the Bears will host three duals. The weekend will start at 2:00 pm on Friday at the Pizzitola Center as the team faces off against Drexel University. Then on Saturday, the team will first duel against United States Military Academy at 11:00 am and against Lehigh University at 6:00 pm later that day.
In order for the team to succeed this week, it will have to overcome the small errors that plagued it over break.
"The guys need to be a little more ruthless and wrestle tougher on the mats," Schell said.
