The Eastern Michigan wrestling squad defeated the Michigan State University Spartans by a score of 34-0 in East Lansing on Wednesday thanks to four key decisions won by Devan Marry, Dakota Juarez, Derek Hillman and Anthony Abro.
The Eagles (3-1) were able to keep their in-state foes scoreless in their most dominant performance to-date. They got to a great start thanks to redshirt-junior Devan Marry and a 9-3 decision. The Eagles handed the Spartans their fourth straight loss, moving its record to 0-4.
“A lot of what I told them is just go out there and compete hard that is what I believe will help us win,” said head coach David Bolyard. “Going into a match I don’t really say ‘go get the victory,’ all I really want is for those guys to go out and compete against other schools.”
Redshirt-freshmen Juarez was the dominant player in an 11-0 major decision that put the Eagles up 7-0 early in the match. Redshirt-junior Jake Davis was next on the mat and won in a 4-0 decision to extend Eastern Michigans lead to 10-0.
Going into the 184 weight-class, redshirt-freshman Hillman was called on, delivering a 4-0 decision victory against Shwan Shadaia. Hillman lost to Shadaia last season at the 2015 Michigan state finals.
Redshirt senior Abro was ranked 9th in the 197 weight-class as ranked by InterMat Wrestling going into his match on Wednesday. Abro dominated with an 11-2 major decision victory, helping build the Eagles lead with 17 unanswered points.
Gage Hutchinson, a redshirt-sophomore, was next in the heavyweight division and delivered with a 10-0 major decision victory. Armando Torres won in the 125 weight-class, winning with a 4-3 decision to contribute to a 24-0 lead.
Blake Caudill, a redshirt-sophomore, decided to bump up a division from 125 to 133, and came through clean with a 5-0 decision.
Redshirt-sophomore Kyle Springer went out and handed the Spartans a major defeat in his 12-4 victory against Garth Yenter. Nick Barber finished the dual with a 6-1 decision to give the Eagles a 34-0 victory.
The Eagles come back to Ypsilanti to do battle against the University of Buffalo in the seasons first Mid-American Conference match-up of the season on Dec. 6., at the Bowen Fieldhouse. Buffalo holds a record of 4-1 and recently placing 4th at the NYS Collegiate Championships.
“This next dual is huge for us, it’s our first MAC dual and that team [Buffalo] has improved a lot since last year,” said Bolyard. “We have to come out and take control of the match and compete hard to get the results we would like.”
