“Wow, what an exciting match,” said Navy 13th-year Navy head coach Bruce Burnett. “I am so proud of the effort that our guys put forth tonight. From top to bottom, the guys competed hard. I told the guys before the match that I thought it would probably come down to bonus points and to not stop wrestling and that’s exactly what happened.”
Although the two teams split the evening with five wins apiece, four of Navy’s five wins were bonus point wins while the Terps managed just one bonus point victory.
Navy opened up a huge 13-0 advantage by earning bonus point victories in each of the first three bouts. Leading things off for the Mids was junior Raymond Borja (Virginia Beach, Va.) at 149 pounds, who had not been in action for Navy since the first week in December when he bowed out of the Nittany Lion Open due to injury. Borja dominated Maryland’s Shane Arechiga in his return to the mat, earning a 19-3 tech fall and ending the match at the 5:05 mark.
Navy pushed its lead to 9-0 following a 9-0 major decision by 157-pound Bobby Barnhisel, (River Forest, Ill.), who improved to 23-5 on the year, including 2-1 in dual action.
Sophomore Peyton Walsh (Glen Allen, Va.) improved his dual record to 3-0 after dealing the Terps’ Domenic DeRobertis a 14-2 loss at 165 pounds.
“Ray Borja gave a phenomenal performance tonight and got us off to a great start that was continued by Bobby (Barnhisel) and Peyton (Walsh). We got on a great roll, but then we ran into some of their nationally-ranked wrestlers. While we may not have come out on top in those matches, I thought we wrestled very well, including Matt Miller who was in the match all the way to the end.”
While Maryland would answer with three consecutive wins of its own, the Terps were unable lock up the score as all three of their victories were by decision. Fifth-ranked Josh Asper opened the Maryland run by edging out Navy’s Mathew Miller (Edgewood, Md.), ranked 13th at 174 pounds, by a 3-1 decision. Asper is now 9-1 on the year and 6-1 in dual action. Meanwhile it’s the second straight week Miller has put together a strong performance but would be denied by match’s end.
Maryland’s Jimmy Sheptock, ranked seventh at 184 pounds, pushed his season record to 27-3 with a 5-1 win over 20th-ranked Mason Bailey (Fairmont, W.Va.), while 15th-ranked Christian Boley posted a 9-4 victory over Navy team captain Oscar Huntley (Stafford, Va.) at 197 pounds.
Navy snapped the Terps’ momentum and extended its lead to 16-9 by way of a 3-1 sudden victory by heavyweight Dan Miller (Berlin, Md.) over the Terps’ Dallas Brown. Last week Miller was also forced into extra minutes to earn his victory, capturing a 7-2 win over Lehigh’s Jack Delia, 7-2, in the second sudden victory session.
The Terps continued to fight their way back into the match as junior Shane Gentry nipped Navy sophomore Patrick Prada (Laurel, Md.) by a 3-2 count at 125 pounds, trimming the Mids’ lead to four at 16-12 with two matches remaining.
“Pat just couldn’t hang on and lost right at the end of the match. It would have been a big upset because Gentry has been in and out of the rankings for the last few years.”
Maryland went on to take its first and only lead of the match when 16th-ranked Geoffrey Alexander earned his seventh win of the season by fall, pinning Navy sophomore Colton Rasche (Plano, Ill.) at 2:34 and setting up the thrilling decisive match.
Locksmith entered Saturday night’s match with a 12-9 overall record and a 1-0 mark, while the Terps’ Goodwin owned a 6-6 record including a 4-4 dual meet mark.
“What a difference a week makes. Joe did everything a champion does this last week in watching his weight and wrestling and training hard. It not only paid off for Joe, but it paid off for the entire Navy wrestling prgoram. It was truly a team win and I could not be more proud of how we went out and wrestled and represented the program.”
Results:
149: Raymond Borja (N) tech. fall Shane Arechiga (MD), 19-3 (5-0)
157: Bobby Barnhisel (N) maj. dec. Danny Orem (MD), 9-0 (9-0)
165: Peyton Walsh (N) maj. dec. Domenic DeRobertis (MD), 14-2 (13-0)
174: #5 Josh Asper (MD) dec. #13 Mathew Miller (N), 3-1 (13-3)
184: #7 Jimmy Sheptock (MD) dec. Mason Bailey (N), 5-1 (13-6)
197: #18 Christian Boley (MD) dec. Oscar Huntley (N), 9-4 (13-9)
285: Dan Miller (N) dec. Dallas Brown (MD), 3-1 SV (16-9)
125: Shane Gentry (MD) dec. Patrick Prada (N), 3-2 (16-12)
133: #16 Geoffrey Alexander (MD) fall over Colton Rasche (N), 2:34 (16-18)
141: Joe Locksmith (N) fall over Frank Goodwin (MD), 4:55 (22-18)
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