Minus 3 starters, Blue Devils downed by Appalachian State

Wrestling is essentially a sport of individuals competing as a team. But on Friday night against Appalachian State, Duke competed as a team without a few key individuals.

With three starters unable to compete due to injuries and a discipline problem, the Blue Devils (5-7) reshuffled their remaining talent and dropped their second-straight match to the Mountaineers (5-1), 27-10, in Cameron.

Appalachian State took the lead early, but strong wins by senior Matt Mapes and freshmen Daegan Smith and Tom Cass gave the Blue Devils a 10-6 lead after five bouts.

The turning point came in the sixth weight class, as junior heavyweight Alex Hunt took on Appalachian State's Damon Parker in a bout that was tied at two at the end of regulation. In the end, the weight class was decided in overtime with the help of a coin toss, as the winner of the toss gets the chance to score first with a one-point escape.

"Heavyweight is a funny weight class," coach Clar Anderson said. "It ranges from 197 pounds to 286. Alex played it safe, giving him [Parker] a 33-pound weight difference, but in the end he played it almost too safe."

After Hunt succumbed, the remaining role players, Brijal Padia, Steve Sentner and Pat Adams, tried to make up for Duke's earlier losses, but in the end, experience seemed to win out.

"Appalachian State is a scholarship program," Anderson said. "They are number one in their conference and we hoped to upset them. We hoped to compete better than we did."

Without the Blue Devils' usual lineup, Anderson was forced to place his wrestlers in weight classes with which they were not exactly familiar. Padia, for instance, only joined the team a few weeks ago, when Anderson "found him in the dorms," and has only competed in three matches at the collegiate level.