Minus its nationally ranked senior tandem of Donnie Vinson and Nate Schiedel, the Binghamton wrestling team closed out its dual meet season on Thursday night with a 36-9 loss to No. 16 Bloomsburg at the Nelson Field House.
With the close of the team’s dual schedule, the perfect dual records of No. 4 149-pound Vinson and No. 5 197-pound Schiedel, who sat out in preparation for the CAA Championship scheduled for March 9, became official. Vinson now sits at 27-1 overall on the year, while Schiedel is at 24-2.
Bloomsburg jumped out to a dominant start Thursday night, taking the first six matches of the meet — two by way of major decisions and one by way of pin. Redshirt freshman Mike Sardo (125 pounds), freshman Dylan Cohen (133 pounds), sophomore Joe Bonaldi (141 pounds), redshirt freshman Ben Price (149 pounds), freshman Jack McKeever (157 pounds) and redshirt freshman Brian Conrad (149 pounds) all fell in consecutive fashion to start off play.
Binghamton redshirt junior 174-pound John Paris finally broke the spell, taking down Bloomsburg freshman Christopher Smith in a 12-9 decision.
BU junior 184-pound Cody Reed followed Paris’ performance with a win of his own, pinning redshirt sophomore Sam Shirey in the third period to garner six points for the Bearcats. The win was the fourth straight for Reed, who improved his dual record to 10-8. He now stands at 15-13 overall on the season.
Bloomsburg recovered with two more wins, however, and the victories by Paris and Reed stood as the Bearcats’ only wins of the night.
With the meet out of Binghamton’s reach, sophomore heavyweight Tyler Deuel also sat out for the Bearcats, forfeiting the final match of the night.
The Bearcats will have a break from match action until the CAA Championship in two weeks. Last year, Binghamton took second and captured three individual titles at the event, which was held at the Events Center.
This year’s CAA Championship is set for March 9 at Boston University’s Case Gymnasium.