After a breakout 2003-2004 campaign, the Blue Devil wrestling team returns three of its four ACC champions and is poised for a run at the conference title.
Christian Smith, Levi Craig and Frank Cornely all won their respective weight classes at ACCs last season, leading Duke to a third-place conference finish. Adam Benitez, Duke’s fourth ACC champion a year ago, will miss this season for academic reasons, and Cornely will miss the first month of the season.
A multitude of other returning starters and some young talent should also carry Duke, but Smith, Craig and Cornely will need to continue their dominance if the Blue Devils want to challenge the ACC’s top teams. The three are relishing the opportunity.
“I want to set a good example by working hard,” Craig said. “Everyone in the lineup has a talent, and I want to help encourage those guys. We need everyone if we want to win the ACC title, and I think we can do it.”
Cornely, who competes at 184 pounds, is spending his first semester working out at the Olympic Training Center. He will return to the team Dec. 17, and his absence could hurt the Blue Devils early in the season. His training, however, should put him in a position to be even more dominant this year.
The championship run will not be easy for the Blue Devils. ACC newcomer Virginia Tech is the early favorite to win the conference title. N.C. State, the ACC champion three of the last four years, fields a young but talented team. North Carolina was down last year but pulled in a top-10 recruiting class and is expected to return to the top of the conference.
“The ACC conference got a lot tougher this year. All of those programs are fully funded, and with the scholarships there they are able to reload a heck of a lot faster than we are,” said head coach Clar Anderson, whose team competes at a significant disadvantage to other ACC schools receiving a full complement of scholarships.
With Smith in the 125-pound weight class, either Bryan Gibson or Wes Kuser at 133 and Daniel Shvartsman at 141, Duke will be strong in the lower weights. Craig and Cornely will anchor the upper weight classes and the Blue Devils will boast young talent in the middle. Anderson hopes that the current lineup will be enough to push his team over the top.
“Outside organizations place us at third,” Anderson said of conference predictions. “I could see us doing that or I could see us slipping in and doing better. We’re going to have to step it up a notch, and I think our guys are able to do that.”
If they do, this could be a season of firsts for the Blue Devils. Once a basement-dweller in the conference, Duke is ready to prove that it can compete despite the scholarship disadvantage.
“One of the most important parts of winning is believing that you can do it and last year showed us that we can,” Smith said. “The team is more united this year in wanting to win.”
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