The wrestling team hosted its first dual match against Drexel last Friday afternoon in the Pizzitola Center, where the Bears claimed the victory in the deciding final match 22-15. The next day, Brown competed against two more teams in its territory - Army in the morning and Lehigh in the evening. It turned out to be a disappointing day for the Bears as they lost both duals 9-25. But the strong finish by the Bears in the final three matches against Lehigh earned back respect for the team, putting a stop to its zero-point performance. Branden Stearns '09 was the hero of the match when he pinned his opponent in 45 seconds - the only fall of the day.
After losing the first match on Friday, in the 174-pound weight class, the wrestlers were able to capitalize during the close matches, and they got right back on the leading side. But Drexel was no easy opponent either. The Dragons trailed closely behind by four points going into the final match when they still had hope of reversing Brown's lead. But the Bears finally put an end to their effort when Chris Musser '09 took down his opponent, Billy Haydt, in the final 30 seconds of the match and grabbed the win for the team.
"Against Drexel we wrestled very well, " said Assistant Coach John Clark. "It was a nice way to start the weekend."
With one win under its belt, Bruno headed into Saturday craving more. But they stumbled against Army, its first opponent of the day. Although Army took the first win at 125 pounds, tri-captain Jeff Schell '08 wrestled back a win for the team in the 133-pound weight class. Unfortunately, the Bears could not pull out the close matches like they did on Friday. At 157 pounds, Tom Fazio '09 won by decision 3-0 to keep the team in the match, but the Bears lost the following four matches and lost any hope of a comeback victory. Though Army had already clinched the victory in the dual, Zach Zdrada '09 won one more match for the team with a 3-2 decision in the final match at 285 pounds.
The Bears tried to shake off their bad start when they faced Lehigh later in the evening, but once again, the Bears failed to win the close matches, allowing Lehigh to take control of the match. The team lost all seven matches from the first weight class, at 125, until 174 pounds.
"We lost a lot of close matches," Clark said. "We could have won any of the first five weight classes. Although the scores don't show (their effort), the guys did a good job."
At this point, 184-pounder Matt Gevelinger '09 came out with great intensity and went after his opponent right from the whistle. His first takedown revived the audience and gave the team back its energy. Gevelinger won the first point for the team after he defeated Kadeem Samuels, 8-3.
The most exciting match, however, was in the 197-pound weight class. Stearns got on the mat and wrestled aggressively from the start.
"I was really happy that Matt won and I was excited to get on the mat," Stearns said. "It was a rough night for us because a lot of close matches didn't go our way, so I wanted to go out there and make a statement for the team."
In the blink of an eye, Stearns took down his opponent and caught him in a cradle with his opponent's back on the mat. The audience suddenly went wild, shouting "Pin! Pin! Pin!" At 45 seconds into the match, the referee blew the whistle as Stearns got the first and only win by fall of the day.
"When I caught (my opponent) on his back, I thought I already had taken him down and just went for it," Stearns said.
Stearns was injured in July after his freshman year and was out of competition all of last year. Although he continued practicing and conditioning with the team, he said the first few matches of the season were tough for him.
But since then, Stearns has shown a lot of improvements and performed well, and he is "really happy about that."
As a veteran on the team, Stearns thinks the team needs to get more physical on the mats.
"A lot of the guys have shown improvements. The team has had some ups and downs. If we can get more physical out there and work on small things like positioning, then we will be good to go," Stearns said.
Stearns says his win by fall is a huge momentum boost for him. He also hopes the team can carry that momentum into the rest of the duals for the season.
"We will dual against Princeton and Boston University next. We expect to dominate Princeton again this year. Last year, we had a disappointing loss to BU. We want to beat them this time," Stearns said.
The team has a week to prepare for next weekend as they host three more dual matches in the Pizzitola Center.
"The guys know what they need to work on, and we just need to fine-tune their techniques," Clark said. "And sometimes that takes some time."
On Friday, the Bears will first wrestle against Princeton at 1 p.m., then Boston at 3 p.m. They will come back to the Pitz again on Saturday to face off against another Ivy League opponent, the University of Pennsylvania, at 2 p.m.
