Nearing the end of its Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association schedule, the Binghamton wrestling team faced its biggest endurance test this season on Saturday — tests, to be specific.
After last week’s winter storm pushed both of their matches at Brown and Sacred Heart to Saturday, the Bearcats (6-8, 4-3 EIWA) put their resiliency on display by posting a 42-0 victory over the Pioneers (0-11, 0-5 EIWA) after suffering a 21-15 loss against Brown (3-5, 2-2 EIWA).
“I think we picked up steam in that second match,” BU head coach Matt Dernlan said. “We were slow getting out of the gates, which kind of cost us.”
Starting the day against the Bears, BU lost its first opening match since Jan. 11, after a decision win by 125-pound Brown senior Billy Watterson stopped senior David White’s win streak at four. But Binghamton wouldn’t be down for long. Consecutive decision wins by 133-pound freshman Joe Nelson and 141-pound redshirt-sophomore Dylan Caruana helped to put BU up early, 6-3.
For Nelson, wrestling up a weight class from his listed 125 spot, the decision victory was the first of his collegiate career.
“[Nelson] won two big matches for us [on Saturday],” Dernlan said. “So it was really big for him and big for the team that he was able to do that.”
That success waned for the Bearcats as the match continued. Losses at the 149 and 157 classes swung the lead back to the Bears, 9-6, midway through the meet. Redshirt-freshman Zack Zupan kept BU alive with a win of his own in the 165-pound battle to tie both teams at nine, but BU couldn’t hold on. After a rough string of upper-weight matches, where Binghamton usually shows its prowess, the victory was sealed for Brown.
Redshirt-senior Caleb Wallace was on the wrong side of the meet’s only fall in the 197-pound matchup, giving Brown a match-high 12-point advantage.
“We thought that was in our grasp, and we just put ourselves in a bad situation,” Dernlan said. “We just have to learn from that situation, and move forward.”
BU fared much better against a struggling Sacred Heart team. With three different Bearcats collecting wins by fall, the Bearcats posted their highest point total in EIWA play this season en route to their second shutout of the season.
“We came out fast,” Dernlan said of the second match. “Our first three guys recorded bonus points so we got off to a fast start, and we built momentum from there. We finished from top to bottom, so it was good to see them recover.”
Nelson, Caruana, Zupan and senior heavyweight Tyler Deuel finished the day 2-0 on the mat, with Deuel contributing six points in each match by way of forfeit and fall.
The Bearcats are set to be back on the mat this weekend, traveling south to face off against George Mason on Friday before meeting American University for their penultimate EIWA match on Sunday.
First match against George Mason is slated for 7 p.m. Friday at the Recreation Athletic Complex in Fairfax, Virginia.