The Mountaineers (4-5, 3-2 EWL) were hampered once again by missing All-American Brandon Rader (141) in the line-up. Taking away the six points given up by the forfeit would have knotted the score at 15 apiece.
"With Rader in the line-up we probably walk away with the win tonight," said head coach Craig Turnbull after the match. "Overall though, I thought our effort was tremendous though."
WVU put together its finest wrestling of the year in the loss as three wrestlers upset Edinboro (16-1, 5-0 EWL) grapplers that came into the evening ranking in the top 20 of their respective weight classes.
"We had some great wins tonight," said Turnbull. "Before the match we talked about using the quality of our opponents to rise to our best efforts of the year and I think our guys were able to do just that."
After dropping the first three bouts of the night, 149-pounder David Jauregui got the Mountaineers on track by upsetting No.5-ranked Gregor Gillespie, 10-9. The Santa Ana, Calif., native used a critical second period in which he outscored Gillespie 5-4 to keep the deficit at one heading into the final two minutes. Jauregui picked up a takedown and a stalling point, while Gillespie could just muster a point for an escape.
Junior Zac Fryling followed that performance up with an exciting 3-1 triple overtime victory against No. 10-ranked Matt Hill, 3-2. The two wrestlers could only come up with an escape each through two overtimes, but Fryling kept enough in his tank to record another escape for the win. In the waning seconds of the period both grapplers picked up a point for unnecessary roughness.
Rounding out the upsets was Kurt Brenner, who upended No. 18 Phil Moricone. The bout was tied at 3-3 heading into the third period with the Freedom, Pa., native beginning on the bottom. Brenner escaped Moricone's clutches and then fended him off for the remaining time.
No. 13-Jared Villers kept his seven-match winning streak alive as he defeated Jim Gibson by a score of 3-1 on a takedown and escape.
Heavyweight Dustin Rogers supplied the most convincing win of the night by majoring Edinboro's Joe Fendone, 12-4.The dozen points scored by the Corning, Calif., native marked a career-high at WVU.
West Virginia returns to action on Sunday, Feb. 18, when it hosts Cleveland State in its final dual meet of the season at 1 p.m. The dual should determine which team finishes second in the EWL in 2007.
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