Another week, another loss to a North Carolina school for the Duke wrestling team.
This time it was UNC-Greensboro (9-4), which handed the Blue Devils a 22-13 defeat Tuesday night in Cameron Indoor Stadium. The loss left Duke at 5-4 with five matches remaining.
The Blue Devils began with a win at 184 pounds, but even the good start was a letdown for Duke. Frank Cornely earned a 14-5 major decision, but head coach Clar Anderson said the team needed more.
“We were afraid of their 125-pounder being a pinner, and so we were looking for a pin from Frank,” Anderson said. “Frank did a good job getting the major decision, but their guy wrestled smart and wouldn’t go to his back.”
Down 7-3 after three matches, UNC-G’s 125-pounder, Joe Kemmerer—the No. 19 wrestler in the nation—made Anderson’s fears ring true. At the 4:45 mark, Kemmerer pinned Kellan McKeon to put the Spartans ahead 9-7.
At 133 pounds, Duke got an emotional win from Bryan Gibson. Down 4-2 after the first period, Gibson used an escape and two takedowns to move into the lead in the second period on his way to an 8-5 victory.
“That showed a lot of heart, coming back like that,” Anderson said of Gibson. “Not losing his composure, staying aggressive, that’s exactly what we try to coach our guys to do.”
Gibson’s win put the Blue Devils ahead 10-9, but UNC-G won the next three matches. Down 19-10 with just two bouts remaining, Duke needed a decision and a pin to pull out a tie.
Steve Smith controlled UNC-G’s Mark Ring for the entire seven minutes of the 165-pound match, but a last-second takedown by Ring set the final score at 14-8, costing the Blue Devils a major decision and a crucial team point.
At 174 pounds, Duke’s Levi Craig needed a pin, but Joe Lowe scored a couple of early takedowns and hung on for an 11-5 victory.
“We put a lot of pressure on Steve and Levi to go out and pin,” Anderson said. “When you have the mentality that you need to pin and you face a good wrestler, sometimes you get carried away and lose control of the match, and that’s what happened to Levi.”
Anderson believes that a more aggressive mentality would help his team in the future.
“We need to work on not letting the other guy control the tempo, and we need to dictate the style,” Anderson said. “You need to wrestle to your strengths, and we just didn’t do that.”
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