A mix of both young and old led the way for the wrestling team at the Kutztown Invitational this past weekend in Kutztown, Pa.
Duke placed fifth out of 11 teams, with 83.50 points, trailing host Kutztown by only a point for fourth place. Delaware Valley won the tournament with an overall points total of 137.50.
"We wrestled smarter matches," coach Clar Anderson said. "We learned from our mistakes."
The Blue Devils placed seven wrestlers overall, including four seniors and two sophomores.
"This was better than last weekend," said freshman Bill Morris, referring to the Blue Devils sixth-place finish at last week's Bloomsburg Invitational. "We're still not where we want to be. I think Coach [Clar Anderson] was half-pleased. We saw where we need to improve."
Morris combined with sophomore Deuce Harris at the 150-pound weight class to provide Duke with its biggest finish of the meet. Both won three contests to advance to the finals, where the two were supposed to battle each other.
Rather than squaring off, though, Morris defaulted the match because a team can only count one player at each weight class, thus Harris gave the Blue Devils more points as a result of his second-round pin of Southern Connecticut's Perry Raso.
"We joked about facing each other all weekend," Morris said. "We both wrestled really well."
A majority of Duke's other strong performances came from seniors.
At 126 lbs., Chris Heckel won his first two matches with relative ease and advanced to the finals with a tight 3-2 win over Wilkes' John Conte in the semis. In the finals, Heckel fell 7-6 to Kutztown's Kohlby O'Donnell, earning Duke a second-place finish.
The Blue Devils' performance at 177 lbs. mirrored their result at 150, except this time two Duke wrestlers squared off for fifth place instead of first.
Seniors Jesse Raia and Dion Santo both lost early in the main draw but advanced to face each other in the consolation bracket, where Raia registered a 5-3 win and subsequent fifth-place standing.
"We have some core seniors who lead the team," Morris said. "Our freshmen and sophomores have also done well too, which gives us good balance."
Two other Blue Devils placed. Senior John Seeber fell in his second match of the main draw at 142 lbs. but advanced to the finals of the consolation bracket. Gloucester's Curt Pace knocked off Seeber 7-1 in the bout, dropping Seeber to fourth place. Seeber was bothered the entire tournament by a sprained ankle.
Sophomore Alex Hunt, in the heavyweight division, advanced to the consolation finals like Seeber, but Hunt fared a little better, defeating Delaware Valley's Bryan Champluvier 5-1 to earn a third-place finish. Hunt's only loss was to eventual winner Keith Hoffman of Shippensburg.
Duke now must prepare for this weekend's difficult Sheridan Invitational, which always hosts many of the nation's strongest teams.
"This tournament will be the toughest tourney we'll be in, including the ACCs," Anderson said. "I expect to be in the hunt and get some national experience. Individually, it lets some of my guys calibrate their performances thus far against the nation's best."
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