At the Navy Classic, the Binghamton wrestling team finished seventh out of 12 teams and five Bearcats placed in their respective classes.
Indiana won the team title, besting host Navy by a comfortable 41 points. Three fellow Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA) schools also took part in the event. BU had the third highest points of the four schools. Six days after placing six wrestlers in the Jonathan Kaloust Bearcat Open, BU saw five of their wrestlers place on Sunday.
“One of our measuring sticks is consistently being the same team every week,” said BU head coach Matt Dernlan. “To see those guys replicate a similar performance from a week ago — at an even better tournament — is really great to see.”
Junior Steve Schneider was BU’s top finisher for the second straight tournament. He earned runner-up honors in the 184-pound weight class and went 4-1 on the day.
In the championship round, Schneider went up against Indiana redshirt senior Nate Jackson. Jackson is the 12th-ranked wrestler in the 184-pound class, while Schneider is ranked 15th. Schneider held his own early on, but Jackson took the match with a 12-4 major decision win.
“[Schneider] got to measure himself against one of the very best guys in the country,” Dernlan said. “You really want a real reality check of where you’re at and we got that [Saturday] with [Schneider].”
Schneider was not the only repeat place winner for the Bearcats. Junior Vincent DePrez followed up his second-place finish last week with a third-place finish at the 165-pound weight class. He was narrowly edged in the semifinals, 15-13. Sophomore Steven Bulzomi and redshirt senior Dylan Caruana also placed for the second consecutive week. Bulzomi placed fourth in the 125-pound weight class while Caruana took fourth place in the 141-pound weight class.
“I’m really proud about how these guys [started] out of the gate, and how they were feeding off each other and how they’re buying into everything we’re preaching,” Dernlan said.
Rounding out the group of BU’s place winners was 141-pound freshman Parker Kropman. He scrapped his way into the semifinals before falling, 3-2, to Navy junior John Kenyon.
Dernlan was pleased with his team after seeing all five place winners make it to the semifinals, but also noted room for his team to improve before conference duals begin next month.
BU’s original plan was to send its full squad to the New York State Championships that were held Sunday at Cornell. Dernlan instead split his squad in order to have his key wrestlers compete at the Navy Classic. The level of competition at this event compared to the Bearcats’ home-opening tournament prompted Dernlan to send his wrestlers to Maryland.
“I think going in there, being in that arena, getting some good results against [some of] the best teams in the country, you can’t help but take a lot of confidence away from that,” he said.
The Bearcats have a week off before heading to their final tournament of the year. Over the break, Dernlan will look for his team to heal before BU’s EIWA season kicks into gear.
“We’ve got to get a little healthy,” Dernlan said. “After the first two weeks a lot of the guys have 10 matches already … so a couple of guys are dinged up and we have to err on the side of caution.”
BU is scheduled to return to the mat at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Collegiate Wrestling Invitational. The two-day tournament is set to get underway on Dec. 2 in Las Vegas, Nevada.