The wrestling team hosted three dual meets last weekend in the Pizzitola Center. On Friday, the Bears beat Princeton, 31-10, and Boston University, 23-12. The next day, the team lost 25-9 against No. 25 University of Pennsylvania, despite the support of an additional crowd of about 18 alums who were there for the team's alumni weekend, according to tri-captain Jeff Schell '08.
In the first dual of the weekend, Princeton forfeited three of the ten weight classes. The Bears won four of the seven matches that were wrestled with two wins by fall, from Schell in the 133-pound weight class and Leo Saniuk '09 at 197. Schell went undefeated this weekend, attributing his wins to smarter, mistake-free wrestling. "I was happy to win the match against Penn because I had lost to the same kid (Bryan Ortenzio) at Keystone Classic earlier this season," Schell said.
In their second dual meet, the Bears were looking for revenge against BU, who beat them last year 22-12. After BU forfeited the 125-pound weight class, Schell and tri-captain Mark Savino '08 won the next two matches at 133 and 141, which gave the team a 12-point advantage. Savino was tied 5-5 with Joey Whitaker at the end of the third period, sending the match into overtime. In the second round of overtime, Savino took down Whitaker with one second remaining and ended the match 7-5.
"We got into a scramble and I didn't even look at the clock," Savino said. "It wasn't until later that I was told there was only one second left in the overtime."
The Bears battled with the Terriers back and forth, but when Matt Gevelinger '09 defeated Eli Vidal with a major decision, 12-3, the Bears led 20-9 going into the last two matches of the dual. Although the Bears lost in the 197-pound weight class, tri-captain Levon Mock '08 finished the dual with a close win 7-6 in the heavyweight class, giving Brown a solid 23-12 victory over the Terriers.
The final dual was against No. 25 Penn. After the Bears lost the first match at 125, Schell stepped in and narrowly defeated his opponent 2-1, which put the Bears right back in the dual.
At 141, Savino started the dual with a take-down, but his opponent saw an opening and got a reversal, dominating the rest of the first period. But Savino got right back into the match in the second period. He chose to start the new period in neutral position and deployed the strategy of repeatedly taking down his opponent and then letting him escape, in an effort to make up the points he lost in the first period and send the match into overtime. He controlled the rest of the match with this strategy, and with 20 seconds left, Savino was just one more take-down away from evening the score. But time ran out in the end, and Savino lost the match 15-11.
"I felt like a better wrestler than my opponent but I had a bad first period (trailing) 8-2," Savino said. "I felt like I still had a shot and my strategy of taking him down and then letting him go really worked, but I ran out of time in the end."
Savino was happy with his conditioning, and said he "felt good and strong" when wrestling long matches.
"The team wrestled better as the weekend went on. We did better against BU and Penn," Amato said. "In the Penn match, the guys did not get tired and their conditioning is paying off."
Two more Bears won points against the Quakers. Chris Musser '09 defeated Tom Timothy 3-1 at 165 pounds, and at 197, Branden Stearns '09 won the last match for the team with a decision of 2-1.
The team has three more dual matches left in the season, all against Ivy League schools. Next Saturday, the team will host its last home meet of the season against Harvard at 2:00 p.m. in the Pizzitola. The following weekend they will leave for New York to face off against Cornell and Columbia.
The coach and the captains are optimistic about the next three duals.
"The guys are working hard and they are peaking at the right time," Amato said.
