“Winning the weekend” has been near the top of the Binghamton wrestling team’s list of priorities this season, as it has struggled to find consistent success against its weekend competition.
In their six previous weekend series, the Bearcats (9-10, 5-4 Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association) have dropped at least one of their meets to miss the sweep. So hitting the road for its final two-match weekend against No. 22 Bucknell and winless Bloomsburg, it seemed safe — if history was any indicator — to assume how BU would fare.
Well, you know what they say about those who assume.
With a come-from-behind win at Bucknell (15-4, 7-1 EIWA), 18-16, followed by a convincing victory at Bloomsburg (0-12, 0-6 Eastern Wrestling League), 32-9, BU took its first weekend sweep of the year to end a rocky dual season. With less than two weeks until the EIWA Championships, BU head coach Matt Dernlan feels that his squad stepped on the gas just in time.
“I just think that it really validates and confirms to them that we’re peaking at the right time,” Dernlan said. “It’s what we’ve been pointing to all year, to peak mentally and physically at this point in the year. And I think we’re coming together.”
Against the Bison on Friday, the Bearcats found themselves in hot water early against their conference foe. Bucknell took the opening four matches, busting out to a 12-0 lead against a group of struggling Binghamton lightweights.
Freshman Vincent DePrez sparked the rebound effort for BU with a win by injury default in the 157-pound bout to cut the Bison lead, 13-6. Redshirt freshman Zack Zupan and freshman Steve Schneider followed with wins of their own in the 165 and 174-pound matchups.
Winning four of five to go on a 15-4 run, the Bearcats entered the final match of the night trailing their host, 16-15. A rematch from 2014, the heavyweight bout featured 22nd-ranked Tyler Deuel and the Bison’s 16th-ranked Joe Stolfi. In the back-and-forth match, it was Deuel who held the time advantage against Stolfi — taking the bonus point to win the match, 9-8, a lot with the meet for BU. The victory may have also secured a top seed for Deuel entering into the EIWA Championships.
“Congratulate everyone from [157] on up,” Dernlan said. “The upper weights really carried the day. So you got to give credit to them for their resilience.”
“What they showed [Friday] night, not to get their heads down against a top-25 team who was probably heavily favored to win on paper,” Dernlan continued. “[Friday] was just a great, great win for the program against a team who’s had a great season.”
Moving on to Bloomsburg, Binghamton was faced with the task of finishing the job against the Huskies on Saturday night. From start to finish, the Bearcats dominated Bloomsburg as 125-pound senior David White posted a major decision win, 20-9, to put BU on the board first, 4-0.
At 141, redshirt sophomore Dylan Caruana earned a major decision victory of his own, 12-4, before BU won the final six matches of the meet — capped by a 20-1 technical fall by Deuel — cruising to a 23-point victory.
“They knew that Bloomsburg hadn’t had the greatest of years,” Dernlan said of his wrestlers. “So it was good to see that they didn’t look past them — didn’t just go through the motions. We looked to put on a dominant performance [Saturday], score a ton of points, and we did that.”
The next trip for BU is set to be on the weekend of March 6, as the team will send 10 wrestlers to compete at the EIWA Championship hosted at Lehigh University. First match is set to be at 10 a.m. at the Stabler Arena in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.