The Eastern Michigan Eagles wrestling team experienced both the sweet taste of victory and the bitter taste of defeat Sunday, Jan. 11, as they defeated the Duke Blue Devils and dropped their match against the N.C. State Wolfpack at the Pitt Duals.
Eastern began their day facing off against Duke, who was 3-5 going into the meet. The Eagles blasted their way through the opening gates and went out to an impressive 13-0 lead. Duke would not go down without a fight though, and marched all the way back to tie the score up 13-13.
The Eagles were able to pull ahead with the help of key wins by Redshirt-junior Anthony Abro and Redshirt-freshman Gage Hutchison The win over Duke improved the Eastern’s record to 7-3 on the season and improved their record at neutral sites to 3-1.
Duke would also go on to lose 20-15 to Pittsburgh, who not only was the host of the tournament at their Fitzgerald Field House, but also ranked the nation's No. 9 wrestling team.
The Eagles followed up their win over Duke by going up against the then No. 22 ranked wrestling team in the country N.C. State. N.C. State has since dropped out of the top 25. This time, EMU did not come out to the same start as they did earlier on in the day against Duke.
The Eagles got behind early and a comeback wasn’t in the cards. The team was only able to win one out of the ten bouts that they participated in. The final score was 36-6 in favor of N.C. State. The loss dropped the Eagles record down 7-4 on the season.
Eastern will have a three-day intermission before an eight-day home stretch where they will go up against Cleveland State (3-2), MAC counterpart Ohio (4-3), and Michigan State (3-6).
They will start on the path back to the winning track on Thursday Jan. 15 when they take on Cleveland State, who is most recently coming off of a 19-12 loss to George Mason. The meet is set to get underway at 7 p.m. at The EMU Convocation Center.
Results
Eastern Michigan 22, Duke 13
125: Blake Caudill (EMU) dec. Thayer Atkins (Duke), 10-8 (EMU, 3-0)
133: Vincent Pizzuto (EMU) maj. dec. Bailey Jack (Duke), 12-2; (EMU, 7-0)
141: Michael Shaw (EMU) dec. Evan Botwin (Duke), 8-5; (EMU, 10-0)
149: Nicholas Barber (EMU) dec. No. 18 Marcus Cain (Duke), 6-0; (EMU, 13-0)
157: Immanual Kerr-Brown (Duke) dec. Brandon Zeerip (EMU), 8-6, (EMU, 13-3)
165: Jake Faust (Duke) dec. Devan Marry (EMU), 6-2; (EMU leads 13-6)
174: Trey Adamson (Duke) maj. dec. Austin Geerlings (EMU), 20-10; (EMU. 13-10)
184: Jacob Kasper (Duke) dec. Mike Curby (EMU), 9-3; (Tied 13-13)
197: Anthony Abro (EMU) dec. No. 5 Conner Hartmann (Duke), 3-2; (EMU, 16-13)
285: Gage Hutchison (EMU) pinned Brendan Walsh (Duke), 5:22; (EMU, 22-13)
NC State 36, Eastern Michigan 6
125: Joe DeAngelo (NC State) tech fall Blake Caudill (EMU), 19-4; (NC State, 5-0)
133: Bryce Meredith (NC State) dec. Shayne Wireman (EMU), 11-5; (NC State, 8-0)
141: No. 18 Sam Speno (NC State) dec. Michael Shaw (EMU), 6-1; (NC State, 11-0)
149: Sam Melikian (NC State) dec. Nicholas Barber (EMU), 6-4; (NC State, 14-0)
157: Chad Pyke (NC State) dec. Brandon Zeerip (EMU), 7-6; (NC State, 17-0)
165: Rohskopf (NC State) pinned Devan Marry (EMU), 0:49; (NC State, 23-0)
174: No. 16 Pete Renda (NC State) maj. dec. Derek Davison (EMU), 10-2; (NC State, 27-0)
184: Nicky Hall (NC State) dec. Mike Curby (EMU), 5-2; (NC State, 30-0)
197: Anthony Abro (EMU) fall Michael Boykin (NC State); 5:38 (NC State, 30-6)
285: No. 3 Nick Gwiazdowski (NC State) pinned Gage Hutchison (EMU); 2:46 (NC State, 36-6)
