To remember the last time the wrestling team defeated Clemson, you would have to go back to 1977, when disco was king and Carter was president.
With that kind of history going into Friday's match against the Tigers, it would have been reasonable to expect the Blue Devils to fall once again to their conference foes.
But that was not the case, as Duke defeated Clemson 21-14 for its first Atlantic Coast Conference win in five years.
"What this shows is that the program is growing and getting a lot stronger as a team," sophomore Dan Covatta said.
This season the Blue Devils have been a much-improved squad, losing their only previous conference match to Virginia by five points on Jan. 10.
"We knew going in that we had a chance to beat them, so everybody was really fired up and ready to wrestle," sophomore Chris Heckel said.
Senior Mike Furst clinched the meet for the Blue Devils when he won his 177-pound match 3-2 over Clemson's Brian Cobler. That victory gave the Blue Devils a 21-8 lead and sealed the victory.
"We were going into the 177-pound match knowing that if we won that one, it was all over for them," head coach Bill Harvey said. "At that point, they couldn't beat us."
One of the keys of the match was getting a win early, which the Blue Devils did when sophomore Indra Sulijoadikusumo won his 118-pound match 14-7 over the Tigers' Tim Nininger.
"Indra's match set the tone for everything," Heckel said. "He came out hard and got the first takedown."
After Duke lost at the 126-pound mark, Heckel helped Duke rebound by pinning his opponent in 4:28 at 134-pounds. By getting the pin, the Blue Devils were awarded six points instead of four, giving them a 9-4 lead. The Blue Devils fed off of this momentum and rattled off three straight victories to increase their lead to 18-4.
During that stretch, Covatta won at the 142-pound mark, 13-12, over Brenden Buckley, junior Scott Frinzi won a convincing 8-3 decision at the 150-pound mark over Scott Kurtz and senior Keith Pavlick edged out a 6-5 win over Paul Selm in the 150-pound weight class.
"Danny Covatta beat a kid who is really a good, good wrestler," Harvey said. "It was an excellent wrestling match, the kind where point after point was scored.
"The guy Frinzi wrestled, Kurtz, was a state champ out of Pennsylvania and an outstanding wrestler, and Scott just dominated him. Scott had been out injured and that was his first time back from the injury. That was a good test for him."
The win over the Tigers represents the improvement this year's squad has made over its 1993-94 counterparts.
"We're very improved over last year at this time," Harvey said. "We just have to keep it going now, and have more faith in ourselves knowing that we can beat these people. We had a real tight match against Virginia--we lost by five points--and that could have gone either way. We could have been 2-0 in the conference instead of 1-1."
Friday night's win will also give the Blue Devils a boost of confidence going into Tuesday night's meet against nationally-ranked North Carolina. But Harvey is certain Duke won't be overconfident going into the match against the Tar Heels.
"The momentum is very important, but you have to keep everything in perspective," Harvey said. "I think our kids are doing that very well. They know what their potential is. They have a better feeling about themselves, and they know how far they can go."
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