The wrestling team left Durham Friday morning at 7 a.m., bound for an eight-team tournament at Swarthmore University in Philadelphia, Penn. What it found when it arrived seven hours later was anything but that.
Only four teams, including Duke, made it to the tournament. The other four missed the tournament for various reasons, the most prominent of which was weather. The Northeast U.S. has been swamped with snow in recent weeks.
"Of the four schools that didn't come, one was New York Univeristy, and another was Haverford College," Blue Devil head coach Bill Harveysaid. "Their problem was, supposedly, a bunch of their kids couldn't make it back because of the snow the week before. So they got in to school late, and they had a bunch of kids hurt. I don't know what their problem was. The other schools were LaSalle College and Johns Hopkins."
The three schools that Duke ended up wrestling were Susquehanna University, Ursinus University and Swarthmore University--all Division III schools. Those programs are of a lesser caliber than the Blue Devils. So, understandably, Duke dominated what became a round-robin tournament, with every school wrestling the other schools.
The Blue Devils took 14 wrestlers to Pennnsylvania. Eight of those finished in first place, and four others finished in second. Duke won eight of the nine weight classes it put wrestlers in.
"This year, when you only had four teams in it, we really dominated the tournament, Harvey said. "But I don't know. Sometimes you do that, and you go away with a kind of empty feeling, like you really didn't do as much as the paperwork shows.
"I wouldn't say it was for nothing. A lot of situations we took four or five kids who hadn't had a chance yet in competition. But some of our better kids didn't get as much of a workout as they should've."
The tournament was designed originally to have teams from schools of high academic standing. It was started at Swarthmore two years ago, and Harvey and Duke agreed to attend it for the first two years. But after the fiasco of this past weekend, Harvey expressed little interest in returning next year.
The Blue Devils return to the mat on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. in Cameron Indoor Stadium for their first Atlantic Coast Conference match when they take on Virginia. This weekend may not have prepared them as much as Harvey would have hoped, but he is confident that his Blue Devils are ready.
"I think we're as ready as we can be for Virginia, as far as the injury situation will allow us," Harvey said. "I think the guys who went up to Pennsylvania are in good shape. We're banged up at 126 lbs., but we'll be ready on Wednesday."
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