Its always nice to prove that your hard work is paying off.
Having already faced such national powers such as Rider, Oregon State and Oklahoma and suffering through a one point loss to Virginia Military Institute last week, the wrestling team traveled to the Swarthmore Invitational to face other small academic schools and display the experience the Blue Devils have gained from their early meets.
The Invitational was an individual meet, with no team points awarded. Duke dominated the meet, which included such schools as Wesleyan, Washington and Lee, Williams and LaSalle. Eleven Duke wrestlers placed in the ten weight classes. Six Blue Devils were champions of their class: 126-lb. junior Chris Heckel, senior Dan Covatta at 142, sophomore Matt Mapes at 158, senior Jacob Hart at 167, junior Jesse Raia at 177 and freshman heavyweight Alex Hunt.
"We felt that the caliber of the tournament was not as good as the others we've been to," Duke coach Bill Harvey said. "[This meet] is good for this time of year to get the team on track."
Harvey was happy with the total team effort, and impressed at is squad's intensity after the tough loss to VMI. The meet allowed the Blue Devils to focus on what they had learned from their previous matches.
"We corrected a lot of mistakes we made in the past," Covatta said.
Covatta continued his stellar year, adding four wins to improve his season record to 23-3. After two pins and a win by technical fall in the first three rounds, Covatta faced an unusual opponent in the finals: his own teammate, freshman Cameron Stock. Covatta took the decision, 16-4.
"It was nice to see [Stock] make the finals," Covatta said. "I am not where I want to be yet, but fortunately, there's enough time left in the season to get in shape and get better."
Harvey praised the performance of Heckel, who pinned his opponent in the finals in just over five minutes.
Also turning in an impressive performance was heavyweight Hunt. After a pin and a decision in the first two rounds, Hunt took the final 8-2. After a particularly tough loss in the deciding match against VMI, Hunt rebounded well and tried some new techniques en route to his victory. Performance at the heavyweight class is crucial to the Blue Devils' success this season, especially in dual meets.
"Alex is really coming on," Harvey said. "He's right on schedule where we thought he should be this year.... We needed to get a heavyweight and we thought he could do the job."
The Blue Devils hope to build on their success next weekend when they return to their dual meet schedule against The Citadel. Harvey expects to see a better team than the one which the Blue Devils defeated 33-11 last year, and his squad is making sure it does not overlook any of its remaining competition.
"We want to win every match and dominate as much as we can," Covatta said. "We want to continue to improve so we can compete at the Atlantic Coast Conference level."
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