The tri-meet was set up with two mats, so that each team was split into two-- its upper five weight classes and its lower five weight classes. To begin the meet, Duke's upper weights squared off against Campbell's upper weights on one mat, while Duke's lower weights met The Citadel's lower weights on the other mat. In the second phase of the night, Duke's lower weights wrestled Campbell's lower weights, while right beside them The Citadel's upper weights grappled with Campbell's upper weights. The last third of the evening saw Duke's upper weights take on The Citadel's upper weights, while The Citadel's lower weights went at it with Campbell's lower weights.
Duke jumped out fast on Campbell, winning the first six matches to go up 31-0. Glover got it started off with a thrilling match against Brent Poynter at 165 pounds. Glover fought to a 5-5 tie at the end of regulation and then fell behind 6-5 in the first overtime before tying it before time expired. In the second overtime, Glover executed a pin of Poynter, coming at 9:53 and securing six points for the Blue Devils.
From there freshman Mathew Koelling tallied a major decision over Campbell's Nick Amato 14-5 in the 174 pound bout and redshirt freshman John Barone won on a forfeit at 184 pounds.
Duke got back-to-back pins at 197 pounds from Keenum and at the heavyweight class from redshirt freshman Mike Tunick. Keenum pinned Rob Yoder of Campbell with six seconds left in the match, and was already leading 16-8 at that point. Tunick pinned much larger opponent Jeremiah Fennell, who was beating Tunick 5-3 when he was pinned at 5:47. Duke then led 28-0 halfway through the meet.
The lower weights would not have it quite as easy, losing two of five matches, but still scored decisions by junior Kellan McKeon at 125 pounds over Richie Apolinar and Philip Wightman at 141 besting Trevor Smith. Shvartsman had an 11-3 major decision over Chris Mazzatta in the 149 pound clash, giving Duke the 38-8 win.
It did not appear to bode well for the Blue Devils against The Citadel when McKeon and freshman Spencer Jasper dropped the first two matches against Bulldogs' Tyler Sim and Matthew Leach at 125 and 133 pounds, respectively.
141-pound junior Wes Kuser and Shvartsman helped Duke get back in it quickly. Kuser notched a major decision 12-2 over Matt Bullwinkel and Shvartsman defeated Levi Duyn, one of Campbell's best wrestlers, who also has twelve pins on the season. That gave Duke a 7-6 lead after four matches.
Freshman Jared Sernoffsky had a tough evening, drawing two of both teams' best wrestlers in Campbell's Steve Wiktorek and The Citadel's Travis Piccard. Sernoffsky was unable to come up with a win at 157 pounds despite giving a solid effort. The Blue Devils were down 10-7 halfway through their meet with The Citadel.
Glover put Duke back on top 11-10 with his major decision, 16-6 over Zachary Filter. It was a truly dominating night for the 165-pound Glover, who has turned it on as of late by winning his last seven matches, including three major decisions and one pin.
The lead would swing once again when Barone was pinned by Darius Caldwell at 174 pounds. Barone was behind in the match when he made a move to take the lead, but overcompensated and found himself in a compromising position-- on his back with Caldwell on top. Caldwell used that to his advantage and pinned Barone 4:01 into the bout, giving The Citadel a 16-11 lead.
Redshirt sophomore Dan Tulley at 184 and Keenum at 197 would both secure dramatic late-third period decisions over John Dickerson and Griffen Greene, respectively. Both wrestlers were tied in their matches with less than 30 seconds left when they pulled out victories in the waning seconds. The Blue Devils took a 17-16 lead going into the final contest of the meet.
The winner of the heavyweight match would take the dual as well, and although Tunick fought hard, he was defeated 11-4 by John Buck. The Blue Devils came up just short in a dual that saw the lead swing six times over the course of ten matches.
Shvartsman continues to move up on the Blue Devils' career wins list. He currently ranks 10th with 80 career victories after his two Wednesday night. Shvartsman is five wins behind Jake Cecere in 9th place, and 25 wins behind all-time leader Bradd Weber.
The Blue Devils will next face ACC foe Maryland on Jan. 27 at 6p.m. in Cameron Indoor Stadium. Duke will wrap up their three-meet homestand on Jan. 31 versus North Carolina, in a meet that will be held at Chapel Hill High School at 7 p.m.
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