The Binghamton wrestling team entered this weekend’s Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association championships off of its best regular season since joining the EIWA in 2013. With 51 total bids to the NCAA Championships in New York City available to the conference, Binghamton (11-7, 7-4 EIWA) had two wrestlers advance to national championships for the second straight year.
Senior 174-pounder Jack McKeever and 184-pound sophomore Steve Schneider both punched their tickets to Madison Square Garden with sixth and seventh-place finishes, respectively. Despite scoring only 16.5 team points at the tournament — with only 125-pound freshman Steven Bulzomi joining McKeever and Schneider in the second day of action — the Bearcats finished with top-10 finishers in three weight classes over the weekend.
“It’s all about advancing at this point,” BU head coach Matt Dernlan said. “You’ll take the win however you can get it. You can critique the matches all you want. You can say, ‘I wish this would’ve gone better, that would’ve gone better,’ but the bottom line is we got two guys who fought and scratched and found a way to advance to the national tournament.”
Entering the tournament as the sixth seed, McKeever earned his bid to nationals the hard way. After dropping a 4-3 decision match to Army senior Brian Harvey in Saturday’s quarterfinal, McKeever opened Sunday with a sudden-victory decision loss in the consolation quarterfinal. With the seventh-place match being his only chance left to secure a trip to New York, McKeever won his final match of the weekend, 1-0, against Drexel redshirt sophomore Nick Elmer. Now headed to his second national championship in many years, the senior left it all on the mat to earn his second chance on Sunday.
“You have to have a short memory after a tough loss like that,” McKeever said. “Obviously I was a little disappointed after that, but you just got to go into that next match with the right mindset.”
Dernlan was not surprised by McKeever’s tough mentality and eventual success on the weekend, praising his ability to keep his cool under pressure.
“It’s Jack McKeever personified,” Dernlan said after the match. “Just guts and heart and it came down to it. He had a must-win match and he knew going in. We weren’t going to count an at-large bid, he knew going in — make or break.”
Fifth-seeded Schneider began his weekend with a 10-4 win over Brown’s Austin Pfarr before dropping his quarterfinal matchup, 7-0, to end the day. Returning in the second day of action, Schneider won his second match against Sacred Heart junior Elliott Antler, 10-3. Despite dropping his final two matches on the day, the victory over Antler was enough to secure Schneider a sixth-place finish in his first year in the 184-pound bracket.
“There are no easy matches,” Dernlan said. “There are going to be wars, there are going to be battles, and Steven’s right there. He’s clicking, he’s running with the best guys in the country.”
With a week off until the NCAA Championships on March 17-19, the Bearcats will look to get their game plan in order, as the team’s only senior will prepare for his second — and final shot — at a national title.
“This is my last tournament ever,” McKeever said. “So I’m just going to leave everything out there.”
Binghamton is set to start competition at the NCAA Championships on March 17. First matches are set for noon at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York.