This was not what coach Clar Anderson had in mind. The Duke coach noted prior to leaving Saturday that he did not receive any of his selections for opponents in Sunday's Wendy's Classic at Ashland University and that the tournament figured to be harder than initially anticipated. He could not have been more right.
While the Blue Devils (2-2) sought to go up against a team from the Big Ten, the nation's best wrestling conference, as a watermark for their progress in Anderson's tenure as coach, they did not face the one they wanted.
"We wanted to face Northwestern and we knew that Purdue was strong. They're slated to have one of their best years," Anderson said. "[Regardless,] I was hoping that we'd have fared better."
Sunday was Duke's first experience against national powers as a team. The Blue Devils faced Purdue, ranked 21st in the nation, in the event's second match, and they also opposed tournament host Ashland, a Division II national power, in the first.
In the day's opening match, Duke struck first blood against the host Eagles, as senior Tommy Hoang defeated Ashland's Jim Phillips, 5-3. Those three team points were the last the Blue Devils saw for a while as the Eagles ran off nine consecutive wins, winning the match handily, 27-3.While the score indicated a blowout, the match was anything but. Four Blue Devils lost by four points or less with two losing in overtime.
"Against Ashland, we had all very close matches," Anderson said. "I was pleased with our wrestling, but we just lost all of the close ones."
Duke's frustration carried deep into the afternoon as the Blue Devils were caught on their backs four times en route to being dismantled by Purdue 44-3. Senior Harry Clarke, a 141-pounder, won the Blue Devils' only match, a 6-0 decision over the Boilermaker's Paul Sacquitne.
"The key to winning on the national level, which we're not, is winning the close ones," Anderson said. "Keeping the lead and not getting caught.... It's a good experience [for us] to go against kids who have national rankings, to not let down their guard."
Although it would have been easy for the Blue Devils to give up and go home following two morale-crushing defeats, the Duke wrestlers collected themselves in the finale against Tennessee-Chattanooga. The Blue Devils came out of the gates firing against the Mocs, winning the first three matches to open up a 13-0 lead. UTC came back, however, to tie the score at 13, but Duke won three of the last four matches to close out with a 27-16 victory.
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