Duke suffered a massive blow in the ACC tournament, failing to qualify a wrestler for the NCAA Championships for the first time in 16 years. The Blue Devils only scored four total team points, finishing in last place. In total, Duke went a dismal 2-21 in matches across the board.
“It’s kind of disappointing on a lot of fronts,” said Duke head coach Glen Lanham. “To see that streak come to an end is pretty bad, to think about [how] you’re not going to have a chance to score points in a national tournament. I can’t remember not being able to do that.”
The grappler with the best chance to qualify for nationals was 285-pound Connor Barket. The redshirt freshman had a 17-12 record entering Sunday, and likely needed to place third to meet the criteria for an at-large bid. Unfortunately for him, the West Lafayette, Ind., native narrowly fell to Dylan Pitzer of Pittsburgh by one before losing more handily to Virginia's talented Ryan Catka, and was eliminated with an 0-2 record.
“He had decent wins against qualifiers,” Lahham said of Barket’s 2023-24 resume. “And then he had to get third to meet the criteria … and he didn’t do that,”
Logan Ferrero (157 pounds) had the best day point-wise for the team, snatching three points out of Duke’s four. The junior defeated No. 4 Jared Kesler of Pittsburgh 5-2, setting up a third-place match with banged-up No. 3 Bryce Andonian from Virginia Tech. Despite his injuries, he still managed to pin Ferrero within a minute and 12 seconds.
“We knew that [Andonian] was hurt. And [Ferrero] just didn’t attack, we let [Andonian] dictate the match,” Lanham said. “Some guys can click and get it, and some guys can’t … Coachability is something that he lacks. Moving forward, he’s got to be more coachable.”
The only other victory came by way of senior Logan Agin, who utilized a takedown in the third period to force a sudden death overtime. Pushing the tempo, Agin was rewarded, taking down Virginia’s Kyle Montaperto to win his first-round match. However, his ACC tournaments soured from there, as he suffered two straight pins at the hands of Jakob Camacho (N.C. State) and Spencer Moore (North Carolina).
Agin joins a sizable crop of at least four graduating wrestlers, including Jack Wimmer, Jarred Papcsy and Conor Becker. However, the program is returning young talent, including the Barket and Gaetano Console, two of the biggest contributors this season. Succeeding in NCAA wrestling is all about getting better, stronger and fitter in the offseason. Strides can really only be made in the summer, and thus these next few months give the program a chance to regroup, re-evaluate and move forward.
“Our guys have to commit to that,” Lanham said. “We can’t have guys … expect different results. It’s like insanity. We got to have a strong start.”
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