Wrestling drops 31-10 decision to Wolfpack

Although the night was billed as "senior night" for the wrestling team, Chris Heckel knew the night was far from being entirely his.

Heckel had the unenviable task of facing freshman phenom Tommy Davis of N.C. State in the 126-pound division. Davis, a three-time Delaware champion, had stormed through his first year in the Atlantic Coast Conference undefeated-until he met Heckel.

The senior from Cave Creek, Ariz. wrestled a textbook match and nearly scored a major decision over Davis, 8-1. Davis avoided the major decision (eight-point differential) by getting a controversial point for an escape with four seconds left in the match.

"[Heckel's performance] was incredible," sophomore Deuce Harris said. "[Davis] is legit, and Chris took it to him tonight. [The escape] was a questionable call, but that's pretty impressive."

Despite Heckel's heroics, N.C. State (8-8) took advantage of two early pins and exacted some sweet revenge over the Blue Devils (5-7), 31-10, last night in Cameron Indoor Stadium.

The Wolfpack's James Kocher and Pierre Pryor pinned Duke's Sean Meakim and Cameron Stock in the 134-lb and 142-lb division, respectively, in the opening period. The pair of pins netted six points each for State and gave it a decisive 16-3 lead.

"Anytime you give up pins, you give the ultimate points to the other team," coach Clar Anderson said. "And you could tell it kind of downed the morale; however, our guys responded well. But the pins put [the meet] out of reach."

After taking eight days off with the flu, Deuce Harris "responded well" by scoring three takedowns in the final period and notching Duke's only major decision with a 14-6 win over John Grochowski at 150-lbs. In the 167-lb division, Matt Mapes battled back from a 7-4 deficit to defeat Kevin Boross, 9-8, for Duke's other win.