Coming into a match with Shawn Bunch, Edinboro's 2005 national runner-up, junior Mark Budd (Orrville, OH/Orrville) was not a puddle of nerves. He knew exactly what he needed to do. Wrestle perfect for seven minutes.
Anyone could tell him that, though. Bunch lost two matches in 2004-05, both to national champion Travis Lee of Cornell. He won his first 16 matches this season, won his 100th career match and wrapped up a title at the Las Vegas Invitational, where Budd had a disappointing 3-2 record while not placing.
As Budd loosened up in Gannon University's maroon-matted wrestling room loft, assistant coach Brandon Newill looked at the wrestler and said, "I'm going to miss him when he leaves. He'd run through a wall if we asked him to."
With a little more than three hours left to the match time, Newill and head coach Jim Beichner were asking Budd to not only run through a wall, but break down a barrier that had already beaten him three times in his career.
In 2004-05, Budd started the season off 13-14, thanks in great deal to three losses to Bunch, once in Las Vegas and twice in dual meets. However, Budd hung tough in each match, with Bunch besting the former Ohio state runner-up 6-4 twice and 6-3 once.
After Budd's third loss to Bunch, a 6-3 decision at the Virginia Duals on Jan. 15, the 133-pound sophomore won eight straight matches, picking up a New York State Collegiate Championship and winning four Mid-American Conference dual meets in the process.
The turnaround, Budd said, was simply mental preparation. "I started to realize I could win against the better guys and I just started to win."
He won two more matches at the MAC Championships and placed third, losing to Northern Illinois' Sam Hiatt, 4-3, in a true-second place match that probably would have earned him an NCAA qualifier.
Instead, Budd had a long offseason to work and get ready for this season. In the second tournament, he hit his first snag, a 5-3 loss to Ohio freshman Albert Madsen, a loss which still has Budd ranked fourth in the MAC. Then Budd posted nine straight wins, including a win over Division II's top-ranked wrestler, Findlay's Andy Uhl, 7-3, and a win over nationally-ranked wrestlers Josh Pniewski of Gardner-Webb, Justin Perch of Oregon and Matt Benza of Air Force.
After his win over Benza in the round of 32 at Las Vegas, he looked poised to head into the quarterfinals, holding a 6-4 lead against Michigan's Mark Moos, ranked fifth by InterMat/NWCA. However, in the final two seconds, Moos was credited for a two-point near fall and a takedown, giving him the win.
"That was a killer," Budd said. "I think that ruined my weekend and made me wrestle worse."
Bunch, meanwhile, cruised to the Las Vegas title.
Photo of Mark Budd
Mark Budd
There's an old Chinese proverb that says, "A foolish man can move a mountain." As the clock rolled toward 9:40 pm, after watching Gannon shock Division II powerhouse Mercyhurst in the first dual of the night in the Civic Center, Budd was ready to try to move a mountain that no one but a national champ had gotten the best of in three years.
"I just needed to get some takedowns, because last year I couldn't take him down," Budd said. "I took him down once. I figured if I got some takedowns, I could win."
It did not start out well as Bunch earned the first takedown. It was the only mistake, however, that Budd made. Budd got the escape to make it 2-1 when the first period ended.
Budd had to turn the tide in four minutes. The lead for the national runner-up expanded as Budd chose to be on top to start the second and Bunch earned an escape. Then it happened, Bunch tried to deliver a shot, but Budd countered and got a takedown to tie the score.
"I faked a single, cleared his arm and shot a high crotch," Budd said. Bunch earned another escape to make it 4-3 entering the final period.
Bunch chose to be on top in the third period, hoping to ride out Budd, but within 30 seconds Budd broke loose tying the score and sending the match into overtime.
"I thought he was getting tired," Budd said, after he tied the score. "I figured I was in better condition than him. I thought that was the change, really."
It took 7:35, but it finally happened. Bunch once again took a shot and Budd countered, taking Bunch to the ground near the edge of the mat. Budd got both arms around Bunch's legs to seal the takedown with 15 seconds left on the clock.
"He could have gone out there and mentally not been where he was in Vegas, but instead he actually surpassed where he was in Vegas," head coach Jim Beichner said. "That's just mental toughness. That's just grit."
After three losses to Bunch in his career and after trying to come from behind for six and a half minutes of the match, Budd had earned the victory. He had moved the mountain, and for the first time in Buffalo's Division I era, a wrestler had taken out a No. 1-ranked wrestler.
"This isn't a surprise to me that he's beating good guys," Beichner said. "We've known he's capable of that now for a couple of years, but it's really a good time for him to do that because it's right in the middle of the season where he's hopefully starting to feel confident with what he's doing. He's got a lot more guys ahead of him he's going to have to beat in order to be an All-American, but this gives him the foundation that he believes he belongs with these guys."
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