By ANDY DILLON
Still searching for its first Atlantic Coast Conference win of the season, the wrestling team traveled to College Park, Md., to clash with the Terrapins of Maryland.
After an impressive showing against nationally-ranked North Carolina last week, the Blue Devils were optimistic that they could wrestle their way into the ACC win column by beating the Terrapins. Duke was knocking on the door of victory, only to have several close matches go the way of the Terps as victory again eluded the Blue Devils. Maryland won 27-6, as Duke dropped to 6-5, 0-4 in the ACC.
The 27-6 margin of victory by Maryland would lead one to believe that the Blue Devils were dominated by the Terps. But two overtime defeats and one last-second loss were the crucial matches that spelled defeat for the Blue Devils.
"We had four or five matches that really could have gone either way," head coach Bill Harvey said. "It was really a close match. The final score was certainly not indicative of the type of match it was."
The Blue Devils managed to win only two matches on the day. True to form was the performance of 126-pounder Chris Heckel, who defeated Scott Fleming 6-4. With his win over Fleming, the freshman notched his 20th win of the season, improving his record to 20-5.
During the match, Heckel sprained his knee, making him unlikely to participate in Tuesday's match against North Carolina State. Heckel is expected to sit out so that he will be fully recovered for the ACC Tournament March 4-5.
The other bright spot for Duke was in the 167-pound class, where Dan Goffredo took Brent Layman 14-7.
After facing a cadre of nationally-ranked wrestlers last week in Chapel Hill, the Blue Devils gained no respite from competing against top-ranked athletes. Scott Graham, wrestling at the 118-pound category, had to continue his streak of matches against elite wrestlers, facing three time All-American David Land. Graham was outmatched by Land, who took the bout 15-6.
The meet against Duke was the first for the Terrapins since a 40-0 drubbing at the hands of the Tar Heels. Harvey, however, knew the caliber of the Maryland team and was wary of the Terps abilities.
"Like I told [my team] before the start, you've got to throw all scores away, forget about what happened before, because records don't mean anything," Harvey said. "They are a good team. What I think happened to them when they wrestled Carolina was their really good kid at 118 [Land] got pinned, and that just took the starch right out of their team."
Similarly, the Blue Devils suffered two early overtime losses and a loss by sophomore Scott Frinzi, who is the team's winningest wrestler. Those setbacks set the tone for the match.
At 134, Frinzi entered his match against Jim Guzzio with a 21-6 record, but was upset by a 9-4 margin.
The overtime losses came directly after Frinzi's defeat and proved to be disheartening for the Blue Devils, who trailed 13-3 midway through the contest.
Freshman Dan Covatta, who has been among the most consistent wrestlers for the Blue Devils this season, fell in double overtime to Jeff Whalen at 142 pounds, 4-3. Danny Lilley, a junior competing at 150 was on the short side of a 3-1 decision in single overtime against Patrick Flynn.
In the 177-pound class, junior John Kays was tied with Marc Papa with 10 seconds remaining in the match when Papa scored two points to seal his victory with no time left on the clock.
The overtime losses and Kays' last-second defeat were the decisive factors in the match. With victories in those bouts, the momentum would have been with the Blue Devils and the outcome could have been drastically different.
"If we could turn those three matches around, it is a 5-5 situation [in matches won]," Harvey said. "But, that didn't happen and I just think that we had a little bit of a letdown ourself, for whatever reason I'm not sure."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.