The Binghamton wrestling team opened its season at the Rutgers Scarlet Knight Quad posting a 1-2 record. The Bearcats recorded bookend losses against Cleveland State and Rutgers with a clean sweep of New Jersey City University.

“I think it’s really individual performances [that were] impressive today,” said Binghamton head coach Kyle Borshoff. “As a team, we have a lot of things to work on, so there were a lot of areas as a team we need to focus on in the next couple of weeks.”

The Bearcats (1-2) got off to a slow start in their first match against the Vikings (2-1) as sophomore Micah Roes lost the first bout of the day. Following back-to-back wins by senior Anthony Sobotker and redshirt junior Michael Zarif, BU was able to take its first lead of the season at 9-6. However, that lead did not last for long as three straight decision losses for Binghamton gave the Vikings a 15-9 lead. A pair of junior Jacob Nolan and redshirt senior Joe Doyle wins were not enough as the Bearcats dropped their first match of the year 22-18.

“The individual performances from [Zarif, Sobotker and Nolan] were outstanding,” Borshoff said.

The second dual meet of the day was a completely different story as BU defeated NJCU (0-3) in a shutout 53-0. This match saw both sophomore Michael Tyrrell and freshman Logan Gumble get their first wins of their careers. The Bearcats posted five technical falls and four falls to sweep the Gothic Knights.

“[Gumble], he is a sponge, he gets better every week, he learns a lot from matches, he wrestles, he’s very coachable,” Borshoff said. “He wrestled really well, he made those guys fight in positions, so I’m just excited about his future and where we can get him to.”

BU’s third and final matchup of the day against Rutgers resulted in a 34-9 loss. It stayed close for the early portion of the match, but the Scarlet Knights pulled away and closed BU out. Roes lost the first bout before Sobotker recorded one of the two wins for the Bearcats in the match with Nolan grabbing a 5-1 decision later. Rutgers rattled off seven wins in eight bouts to take the match.

Sobotker’s bout against Rutgers’ No. 11-ranked 133-pounder Sammy Alvarez was the individual highlight of the day. In the upset, Sobotker was able to draw Alvarez out to the edge of the mat. From there, Sobotker made his offensive attack and flipped Alvarez over his shoulder, gaining the advantage. On the ground, Alvarez struggled to get free from Sobotker’s grasp but was unable to, allowing Sobotker to get the pin.

“[Sobotker] is dangerous in a lot of different positions, he’s always got a puncher’s chance,” Borshoff said. “It should give [Sobotker] him a huge boost in his confidence … He should know that he’s able to beat the best guys in the country.”

Borshoff stressed the importance of offense and wants the team to put more emphasis on scoring points during their bouts.

“I don’t care if we win or lose, I just want to score points,” Borshoff said. “If we get beat 10-8, 14-12, those are the things we can build off of, those are things that teach us things as wrestlers.”

In the last match of the day, redshirt senior Joe Doyle was defeated via injury. Doyle is currently ranked 28th in the country as a heavyweight per InterMat.

“We need [Doyle] to heal up from what happened in his last match today,” Borshoff said. “In our sport being healthy at every weight is usually one of the biggest challenges that exist, so if we can get healthy and have all our best guys in the lineup, I think we’re one of the best teams in the country.”

The BU roster has four athletes who competed at last year’s NCAA Championships. Redshirt senior Lou Deprez did not compete in Sunday’s meet but is expected to be one of the biggest contributors on the team, as he placed eighth overall at the 2021 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championship last season.

“Our ceiling is really high,” Borshoff said. “I expect to be getting ourselves into the national rankings, I expect to qualify a bunch of guys for the NCAA tournament, I expect to put guys on the podium at the NCAA Championship, that’s the expectation these guys know that.”

The Bearcats hit the mats again next Sunday, Nov. 14 for the Jonathan Kaloust Bearcat Open. Matches will take place all day starting at 9:30 a.m. in the Events Center in Vestal, New York.