The wrestling team ended its season with a sixth-place finish at the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament, March 4-5 in Charlottesville, Va., but freshman Dan Covatta fared well enough to advance to the NCAA Championships as an at-large entrant.
Covatta placed third at 142 pounds in the ACCs, failing to gain the automatic bid to the NCAAs that goes to the first and second-place finisher in the league tournament. But the ACC gets five at-large bids, which are voted on by the six league coaches. Covatta was named on five of the ballots.
"I'm not sure if we've ever had a freshman in the NCAAs," Duke head coach Bill Harvey said. "Actually, I think we had a couple. He's been wrestling well and practicing well. He's peaking at the right time."
Covatta will be one of just 32 142-pounders from across the country to compete in the NCAA Championships this week in the Dean E. Smith Center in Chapel Hill. The Collegeville, Pa., native is the first Duke wrestler to compete in the NCAAs since 126-pounder Mike Darlington lost in the first round in 1992.
Covatta will learn of his first-round opponent Wednesday, and will probably wrestle Thursday, according to Harvey. Covatta is unlikely to be one of the 12 seeded wrestlers in his weight class, so he will be one of 20 142-pounders who will be matched up by a random draw. In other words, Covatta could wrestle the best 142-pounder in the tournament, or the worst.
Although Covatta was the only Duke wrestler to advance to national competition from the ACC tournament, four other Blue Devils placed in the top four in the conference in their weight division.
Sophomore Scott Frinzi finished fourth at 134 pounds, junior Danny Lilley was fourth at 150, senior Dan Goffredo third at 167 and heavyweight Jeremy Godwin finished third.
One of Duke's best wrestlers this season, freshman 126-pounder Chris Heckel, was unable to compete in the ACCs because of strained knee ligaments suffered several weeks ago.
"Heckel had a great chance of doing well [at the ACCs]," Harvey said. "He wrestled well against the guys in his weight class during the season. It's unfortunate that the injury came when he had no time to recuperate."
If Heckel had wrestled, the Blue Devils most likely could have improved on their 19.5 points and moved ahead of Maryland or Virginia in the final standings.
"Overall we wrestled well," Harvey said. "We're a little disappointed with the point total. One guy would have turned that around. We could have finished fourth."
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