In a season characterized by near-triumphs and thorough losses, the Duke wrestling team's exhibition at the ACC tournament at University Hall in Charlottesville, Va., seemed to be decided by luck.
Duke dealt unsuccessfully with a cloud of bad luck that seemed to float above the heads of its freshmen wrestlers as the Blue Devils claimed fifth place.
A controversial call in the 141-pound weight class resulted in the same fog that kept the Blue Devils from beating Maryland in a one-point defeat earlier in the season.
In addition, the freshman second-seed Daegan Smith defaulted due to illness, which along with freshman Tom Cass' head injury in the 174-lb. weight class, proved the deciding margin.
Senior captain and defending ACC 174-lb. champion Matt Mapes also recorded a disappointing loss at 165. He matched up well in the early rounds, beating eventual team-champion UNC's Dean Calhoun 9-1, but succumbed to three-time ACC champion, Virginia's Jim Harshaw.
"I knew his style and he knew mine," said Mapes on Harshaw's championship performance. "He jumped up two weight classes and I moved down one, but he still seemed bigger than me."
Less disappointing for Duke and Mapes is his bid to the NCAA tournament, which is automatically extended to all first-place finishers in each weight class and 10 wild card bids, as determined by the coaches.
"If he can wrestle like he has been," Anderson said, "he has a true shot to be an All-American."
Duke's only other NCAA entrant will be Jason Gorski, who placed third in Charlottesville at 141. He bested the same opponents from Maryland and Virginia he had beaten earlier in the season, but a controversial "slam" call cost him the semifinal match against Tar Heel Josh Cowley.
The call was based on a ruling that when a wrestler picks another up and "slams" him back down on the mat without his hands free, it is dangerous and can potentially lead to injury.
"It was a frustrating loss," Anderson said. "If it hadn't been for that [call], we were hoping he would make Nationals."
The Blue Devils' other NCAA hopes were stymied by illness and injury. Smith entered the tournament with the No. 2 seed at 197, and a single loss in the ACC.
That one loss was delivered by this year's ACC 197-lb. champion, Craig Fenstermaker, all but assuring Smith of at least a second-place finish.
"[Smith] has athletic-induced asthma and he couldn't even warm up." Anderson said. "I think if we had him in there, we would have taken fourth [place] and beaten Maryland."
Cass, another top Duke freshman, sustained a head and neck injury during his quarterfinal 174-lb. match. Each wrestler is allowed a minute and a half of injury timeouts for treatment during a match, and Cass used all of his trying to clear the fog in his head, another stroke of bad luck for the Blue Devils.
Cass continued in the match, but eventually fell to Virginia's John Qualter, 3-2.
"It was a very good match," Anderson said. "He tried a move and miscalculated and hit his head on the mat."
Other Duke results included third-place finishes for junior heavyweight Alex Hunt and sophomore Sean Meakim, while senior Jay Klug and sophomore Deuce Harris failed to go beyond the first round.
Anderson hopes the dark cloud will lift from over the Blue Devils' heads and allow Gorski an NCAA berth and Mapes a performance by which to remember his Duke career.
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