At Saturday afternoon's Blair Super Quad, however, the legendary Bucs coach played all his cards right, and it enabled his team to emerge 3-0 with two very hard-fought wins.
Against Wyoming Seminary, the Bucs bumped No.3-ranked 135-pounder Austin Ormsbee up to 140 and 140-pound Cornell-recruit Chris Villalonga up to 145, and they responded with a major decision and a fall, respectively. Jesse Shanaman's tech fall at 152 gave Blair a 15-4 lead, before the Blue Knights reeled off three straight wins of their own to tie the match at 15.
Iowa recruit and Blair senior Mike Evans, InterMat's No. 2-ranked 189-pounder, wrestled up at 215 pounds, and pinned Ben Puza to give the Bucs a lead they would never relinquish. Later, sophomore Mark Grey came through with an 11-3 major decision at 119 pounds, to give the Bucs a 31-18 lead, and seal an eventual 31-29 victory.
"We were knocking on the door against Blair," Sem coach John Gordon said. "We split 7-7, but bonus points made the difference in that one. And we see them again in three weeks at National Preps, so we get one more shot. I think our kids are believers that they can compete with the top programs, and if all the stars aligned, something special could happen. That's what we need to prepare for."
In the final dual of the day, St. Ed's seemed poised to stun Blair in front of a packed house and a raucous crowd that appeared to be split almost 50-50.
The dual began at 140, and the teams were even at 6 after Villalonga and St. Ed's Anthony Salupo each recorded an early WBF. Eagles freshman Dominic Abounader kept it close with Shanaman before St. Ed ripped off three straight bonus point victories, led by Virginia-bound senior Nick Sulzer's 23-8 tech fall. Trailing 19-9, Blair again called upon Evans to record a pin at 215, followed by a solid win at heavyweight by freshman Brooks Black.
The crowd was nearly thrown into pandemonium moments later when Eagles freshman Edgar Bright countered a throw attempt by InterMat's top-ranked 112-pounder, Evan Silver near the edge of the mat, and took him straight to his back. Silver avoided the fall, however, and managed to gut out a tough 9-8 win.
Again, Buxton rolled the dice by bumping Mark Grey up to 125 pounds, and Grey rewarded that decision with a pin early in the second period. That win gave the Bucs a temporary 27-25 lead, but even that advantage was quickly erased by Virginia-bound Gus Sako's 4-1 decision at 130 pounds. Trailing by one, junior All-American candidate Austin Ormsbee fought off a valiant effort by Eagles sophomore Mark Martin to earn the 8-5 decision and allow Blair to escape the day unscathed with consecutive two-point wins.
"You do what you can to try to make things happen," Buxton said. "We have nine guys that can carry us, and those nine guys did so in both of those matches today. We came up with some key late wins."
Despite Clark's abscense, the Eagles really came out firing against the Bucs, and seemed on the verge of an upset before Blair brought out their big guns at the end.
"I thought our kids really battled hard," Urbas said. "We told our kids that we need to build off of this. We just have to keep it going heading into [the Ohio State Tournament]."
"We're just looking for better match-ups, the right match-ups," Blair senior captain Mike Evans said. "We had to come in here today and battled against two very tough teams."
The meet began in the early afternoon with a bang at 130 pounds when Wyoming Seminary freshman Eric Morris pinned top-ranked Jamie Clark of St. Edward early in the second period. The Illinois-bound senior tried to Granby Roll for an escape, but he landed awkwardly on his shoulder and got stuck in stunning fashion. He appeared to be in severe pain, and spent the rest of the meet with his right arm in a black sling.
That was only the beginning of a stellar day for Morris, who went on to record a 15-0 tech fall against Blair, and another pin against Bergen Catholic.
St. Ed's coach Greg Urbas didn't want to speculate on the nature of Clark's injury, other than to say that he was in significant pain and that they needed to do further tests to determine its extent.
Results
Blair Academy 63, Bergen Catholic 9
Wyoming Seminary 33, St. Edward 22
Blair Academy 31, Wyoming Seminary 29
St. Ed 75, Bergen Catholic 0
Blair Academy 30, St. Edward 28
Wyoming Seminary 75, Bergen Catholic 0
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