After battling all night to earn its first dual-meet victory of the season, the Binghamton wrestling team found the final seven minutes of Saturday’s match at the West Gym to be very costly.
The Bearcats jumped out to an 18-9 advantage with two matches remaining against Franklin & Marshall, but forfeited the 197-pound class and lost the heavyweight bout by a major fall to lose to the visiting Diplomats 19-18.
“Despite the loss, I was happy with how the guys wrestled,” said head coach Tony Robie. “They have made tremendous strides both mentally and physically and are starting to buy into what we do. Throughout the season they have been working hard and have steadily become better wrestlers.”
“The entire team wrestled hard,” said 133-pound freshman Errick Cholewa. “It hurt knowing that the forfeit was coming up and that we would be giving away six easy points.”
Cholewa followed up on his sixth-place performance at the Edinboro Open by earning a victory over Franklin & Marshall’s Trent Dixon in dramatic fashion. Tied at 6-6 going into the third period, Cholewa scored the go-ahead points on a takedown with 40 seconds remaining. He later followed with another takedown to win the match 10-6.
“I had a lot of confidence with my takedowns,” Cholewa said. “It was what I was doing best the whole match, so I got aggressive and went after it.”
Also earning wins for the Bearcats were 125-pound Steve Gurien 7-0, 149-pound Nate Patterson 3-2, 184-pound Jim Tretter 7-2 and 157-pound Chris Wade by pinfall, 2:32 into the first period.
This was the last regular-season dual competition for the Bearcats. They now face their final test, the Colonial Athletic Association Championship on March 3-4 at Drexel University, where the wrestlers hope to earn bids into the NCAA tournament.