In the final tournament of one of the most successful seasons in Duke wrestling history, four Blue Devils competed in the NCAA Championships this weekend. None of the four placed in the top eight in his respective weight class, but the team was satisfied with the way its season ended.
"This is such a tough tournament, and there are so many great wrestlers here," head coach Clar Anderson said. "I thought we did a good job and just lost some tough matches."
Junior Frank Cornely had the most successful tournament of any Blue Devil, winning two matches before bowing out.
"Frank wrestled his best wrestling of the year," Anderson said. "I was very pleased with his performance here. It was his best tournament of his college career."
Cornely's weekend began with a 22-7 loss at the hands of top-seeded and eventual champion Greg Jones from West Virginia, but he did not let the loss dishearten him. He earned a solid 9-3 decision over Hofstra's Brad Christie in his next match and then won 6-5 over Rider's Nick Catone, a wrestler who had soundly defeated Cornely earlier in the year. His season came to an end with a 5-4 loss to eventual seventh-place finisher Kurt Backes from Iowa St. Cornely who was leading most of the way but surrendered the lead in the last two seconds of the match.
Adam Benitez also found some success over the weekend, winning one match. He lost 12-4 in the opening round against seventh-seeded and fourth-place finisher Darrel Vasquez but bounced back to defeat Bloomsburg's Bryan Hart 10-2 in the first round of the consolation bracket. He lost 12-5 in the next round against Scott Jorgenson to end his weekend.
"Adam looked really good in his win," Anderson said. "He was winning in that last match and ended up losing a tough one but he had a good tournament."
In the 125 pound weight class, freshman Christian Smith had a tough draw and lost his first two matches. Smith was defeated 20-7 in the opening round to Illinois' Kyle Ott, the eventual second-place finisher. He then lost 10-7 in the consolation bracket to Christian Staylor of Arizona St., after leading for much of the match. Smith finished the season with a 30-14 overall record in the first year of his Duke career.
"Christian has had a wonderful season," Anderson said. "He just made a few freshman mistakes, the first time all season he has done that, and at this level they just capitalize on it."
Levi Craig was Duke's fourth wrestler at the tournament, competing in the 174 pound weight class. Craig--who finished the season with a 21-20 record--lost his first match 8-2 to Matt Kallai and then fell to Pittsburgh's Francis Iorfido13-3 in the consolation bracket.
The four wrestlers are the most ever sent by Duke to the NCAA Championships, but the Blue Devils are not content with the way their season finished. Anderson hopes his team will use its experience from this year to help it in seasons to come.
"We had four of the 10 ACC champions this year, and they are all returning next year," he said. "Hopefully they realize now the level of competition [at nationals], and they believe they belong there and will do the extra work needed to perform better. I'm very excited for the future of Duke wrestling."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.