Senior Scott Frinzi highlighted the wrestling team's matches at the Atlantic Coast Conference championships in Chapel Hill by winning the ACC title at the 150-lb. weight class. Frinzi, whose previous best at the conference meet was a fourth-place finish, earned his first NCAA Tournament bid by nabbing the league championship.
To win the tourney, Frinzi had to overcome past setbacks and conquer two wrestlers who had beaten him earlier this season. His first victory came over No. 1 seed Robert Lord of North Carolina, who had taken a 5-2 decision from him during the regular season, and in the championship he bested third-seeded Jim Harshaw of Virginia, who had won 8-6 in the wrestlers' regular-season meeting.
"I had lost to both of them before, so that made me even more determined to beat them, as a sort of revenge factor," Frinzi said. "I knew I could beat both of those guys because I beat Lord last year and my match against Harshaw this year was a close one."
Frinzi's outlook appeared grim early in his first match, as the senior fell behind UNC's Lord 4-1 during the first period. But Frinzi recovered with an escape and an additional takedown to tie the score by the end of the period. In the second and third periods, Frinzi scored another escape and takedown, and after picking up one point for riding time and one for a penalty against Lord, the Blue Devil 150-pounder advanced with a 9-4 triumph.
In the championship match, Frinzi battled Virginia's Harshaw valiantly from beginning to end. Neither wrestler scored during the first period, and in the second period the two traded takedowns and escapes. Regulation time ended with the score tied at two, but Frinzi earned an extra point for riding time to win the conference title. Frinzi's attacking style helped him grab the championship, but according to head coach Bill Harvey, Frinzi's ability to limit his errors was just as important.
"Scott did what he needed to do," Harvey said. "He wrestled aggressively and he didn't make any mistakes-he wrestled a virtually error-free match. He didn't make the mistakes that would have given the other guys cheap points."
Frinzi, who recorded a winning record in each of his four seasons at Duke, stepped up his work ethic and intensity level during the final weeks of the regular season. He did not want to graduate without competing in the NCAA Tournament, and as a result, he worked harder than at any other time.
"The last few weeks of practice, I really pushed myself and looked at what I wanted to do," Frinzi said. "I saw what level I wanted to reach and I made myself work to get there."
Other than Frinzi, most Duke wrestlers experienced little success at the conference meet. Junior Jacob Hart won the squad's only other title when he took the consolation-round championship at the 167-lb. level. Hart rebounded from a semifinal loss to top-seeded Ken Johnson of N.C. State to knock off Maryland's Chris DeVito, who had beaten him during the regular season. Unfortunately for Hart, only five consolation-round participants from the 10 weight classes win NCAA Tournament invitations, and he was not one of the wrestlers selected by ACC coaches to advance to nationals.
The Blue Devils' most controversial defeat took place in the championship of the 158-lb. consolation rounds, where Duke freshman Matt Mapes fell 2-1 in double overtime to N.C. State's Kevin Farnham. During the two-minute first overtime, the referee mysteriously interrupted the match at the one-minute mark, called both wrestlers for stalling and prepared for a sudden-death second overtime. Harvey disputed the call, claiming that it clearly violated official rules, and the wrestlers continued their draw through two minutes. However, in the sudden-death overtime that ensued, the referee again stopped play to cite Mapes for a potentially dangerous hold. After all the complications had been settled, Farnham finally escaped Mapes' hold with three seconds remaining and won the match.
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