The wrestling team got a strong indication of where it stands, and what it needs to improve upon this weekend.
The Blue Devils opened their season on Saturday with an fourth-place finish out of eight teams at the Bloomsburg Invitational in Bloomsburg, Pa. Bloomsburg, which was the host school, won the tournament, and Virginia Military Institute finished second.
Duke's strongest showing in the meet came at 142-lb. weight class where sophomore Dan Covatta and junior Scott Frinzi met in the final. Covatta and Frinzi won each of their first three matches to set up the Blue Devil showdown. In the final Covatta pulled out a hard-fought decision to win the match.
"It was a great match," head coach Bill Harvey said. "It's just too bad that they had to wrestle each other."
Because Covatta and Frinzi are both among Duke's best wrestlers, it may not be in the Blue Devils best interest for them to both compete at 142-lb. Consequently, one of the two will probably be moved to 150-lb.
"This tournament gives us some idea of where we have to be," Harvey said. "We're going to move someone up to [150-lb.]. We'll probably have to realign some positions."
Duke also had two wrestlers finish well at the heavyweight class. Sophomore Matt Eckerman made it to the final round, and senior Jeremy Godwin finished fourth.
One thing which hurt the Blue Devils in scoring was that each team is allowed to designate just one person to score points at each weight class. At this meet, every team had two wrestlers at every weight distinction.
This rule cost Duke points at the 134-lb. and 190-lb. classes. At 134 lbs., freshman Dan Kocab won his first two matches and came in fourth place. And senior Mike Furst also had a fourth place finish, in the 190-lb. weight class. Unfortunately for the Blue Devils, neither Kocab nor Furst was the team's designated point scorer, so neither was able to contribute to the squad's standing.
"We had to designate one point-getter at each weight class," Harvey said. "That's the rule the game is played under, and that's what we had to work with."
Kocab was not the only freshman to make his Duke debut on Saturday. The Blue Devils boast eight freshmen on their roster this season. Among these newcomers, Jesse Raia placed sixth in the 167-lb. weight class.
"I think a lot of our freshmen are doing pretty good jobs," Harvey said.
Duke will face two of the other teams from this meet -- VMI and Franklin & Marshall -- in regular season dual matches.
"We beat F&M, and I think we're a better team than them," Harvey said. "If we make some adjustments, we think we can have a shot at competing with VMI in a dual meet."
Harvey believes that this meet should give the Blue Devils an idea of where they need to improve, and how their lineup will look for dual meets.
"The wrestlers did a really good job," he said. "We think its a good indication of where we need to be. Overall, I think we did a good job. We could have picked up a few more points, though."
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