The Binghamton University wrestling team recorded a comeback victory in Philadelphia on Friday night, edging out Drexel, 16-15, to earn its second straight road victory.
The Bearcats (7-5, 4-3 Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association) started slowly out of the gate, losing their first three bouts of the night to fall behind the Dragons, 9-0. Coming off its first conference win against American University last weekend, Drexel (4-7, 1-3 EIWA) came out on top in the three lightest weight classes.
“We’re at the point in the system where everything should be routine,” BU head coach Matt Dernlan said. “That crowd was one of the loudest I’ve ever seen, that could’ve contributed [to the slow start]. Although we did start off slow but the way we finished was great.”
The momentum was dramatically swung in favor of the Bearcats when freshman Frankie Garcia earned a win at the 149-pound class. Garcia was up against a formidable opponent, redshirt junior Matt Cimato, who is nationally ranked as the 13th-best 149-pounder in the nation. After a scoreless match, Garcia took down his opponent in extra time to earn a victory and finally put BU on the scoreboard.
Coach Dernlan had high praise for the freshman.
“[The victory] was gigantic,” Dernlan said.” You’ve got a true freshman who’s in a hostile atmosphere with 2,000 people going absolutely bananas and he’s already seen three guys go out in front of him and lose and now it’s his job to wrestle [one of the top] guys in the country and he wasn’t even phased.”
Sophomore 157-pounder Vincent DePrez followed up Garcia’s key victory with a commanding win of his own, earning a major decision and cutting Drexel’s lead to 9-7. Drexel redshirt sophomore Austin Rose defeated redshirt freshman Anthony DePrez at 165 to push the Drexel lead to 12-7, but after that the Bearcats made their final run of the night to seal the victory.
The Bearcats’ senior leader, 28th-ranked Jack McKeever, recorded a hard-fought 2-1 win at the 174-pound class. Next up for BU was 19th-ranked sophomore Steve Schneider, who defeated Drexel sophomore Stephen Louiseau, 3-0, at the 184-pound class. This win gave Binghamton the lead, 13-12 and the Bearcats would not look back. Binghamton capped off its run with another decision victory, 12-8, this time by freshman 197-pounder Mark Tracy.
“We showed character and we didn’t give in,” Dernlan said. “We kept fighting. That was the biggest character win since I’ve been here.”
Drexel was able to end the day with a decision victory in the heavyweight contest to close, but the effort was not enough. The Bearcats escaped with a one-point victory, 16-15, to improve to 4-2 in conference.
In addition to the clutch performance of Garcia, Dernlan saw McKeever and Schneider as integral to the Bearcats’ success. With wins on Friday, they both earned their eighth dual victories of the season and have combined for just three losses in the Bearcats’ 11 duals meets this season.
“You know when you’ve got a couple of stalwarts, guys you can rely on, it gives added comfort and confidence to the other guy,” Dernlan said. “Any match we go into we’ve got these two guys. We can count on their best effort, win or lose.”
In Sunday’s match at Pennsylvania, BU opened the match with decision victory from 125-pound freshman Steve Bulzomi to put the Bearcats ahead, 3-0. But the Quakers (3-1, 3-1 EIWA) struck back with five consecutive victories to put BU in a 21-3 hole late. Despite wins by McKeever, Tracy and heavyweight redshirt freshman Connor Calkins to close, Binghamton fell, 24-9.
The Bearcats are set to return to action on Saturday at Ithaca College. First match is scheduled for 2 p.m. from the Ben Light Gymnasium in Ithaca, New York.