Dual competition has not been kind to the winless Blue Devils so far this season. But Saturday brings three more opportunities for the squad to record its first victory of the 2015-16 campaign.
Duke will travel to Pittsburgh for the annual Pitt Duals at Fitzgerald Field House for a series of duals beginning Saturday at 9 a.m. Although the Blue Devils have dropped their first two dual competitions this season, matches against No. 25 Pittsburgh, Edinboro and Harvard could propel them to a winning record.
“We’ve got to get ready for [the Pitt Duals],” Duke head coach Glen Lanham told GoDuke.com following Wednesday's loss to No. 4 N.C. State. “No one is going to feel sorry [for us]. We’ve got to go up there and take care of our business and just wrestle hard.”
After being blown out of Card Gymnasium 34-9 by the Wolfpack, Duke (0-2, 0-1 in the ACC) has a quick turnaround this weekend searching for its first ACC victory of the season. The Blue Devils—led by ranked grapplers No. 5 Conner Hartmann, No. 12 Jake Faust and No. 20 Mitch Finesilver—will attempt to reverse their fate from last year’s Pitt Duals, when they lost to then-No. 9 Pittsburgh and Eastern Michigan by less than 10 points apiece.
The Panthers (5-1, 0-0) are also looking for their first ACC win, though. In its 20-15 victory last season, Pittsburgh needed redshirt freshman Ryan Solomon to defeat Blue Devil Brendan Walsh in the heavyweight match to capture the victory—which Solomon did in a tiebreak, 2-1. Solomon has risen to No. 20 in the polls this season and is poised to finish strong once again for the Panthers, but No. 17 Dom Forys and No. 5 Mike Racciato at 133 and 141 pounds, respectively, will be expected to give the big man breathing room at the back of the lineup.
Duke’s Zach Finesilver will have his hands full not only with Racciato at 141 pounds in the first dual, but will also have to deal with Harvard’s seventh-ranked Todd Preston, who has recorded a 16-3 record this season, in the third dual of the day. The Crimson (0-0) have not competed in a dual this season, but will look to Preston—their only ranked wrestler—to get bonus points against the first Finesilver in the Blue Devil lineup.
“[Zach Finsilver]’s tough, [but] he’s got to make some adjustments,” Lanham said. “He had a point [against N.C. State] where he had defended the shots well and was getting to his offense and he just didn’t get to his strong suits…. I think that hurt him. It’s a learning experience.”
In between Pittsburgh and Harvard, Duke will face Edinboro at 11 a.m. The Fighting Scots (5-3) finished 15th at the Southern Scuffle earlier this month—the Blue Devils finished 12th—and competed against a few Duke grapplers during the day.
At the Southern Scuffle, Edinboro redshirt freshman Billy Miller defeated Walsh at heavyweight in the fourth consolation round 12-3 en route to an eighth-place finish and his second EWL Freshman of the Week award this season.
Another tournament rematch will take place at 149 pounds. In the quarterfinals at the tournament in Chattanooga, Tenn., then-No. 20 Patricio Lugo lost to Mitch Finesilver—who replaced Lugo at No. 20 following the tournament—by a 3-1 decision. Lugo will look improve upon his 20-2 ledger this season by avenging the loss against Finesilver, who defeated N.C. State's Beau Donahue to put the Blue Devils on the board Wednesday.
“Mitch looked like he was a little gassed [against N.C. State],” Lanham said. “I don’t know why. I don’t know if it was the anxiety of these guys being the third-ranked team in the country and those guys actually having to face them—I don’t know really what it was.”
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