The Terrapins wrestling team had nearly a month between Big Ten matches. Friday night’s dual against the Golden Gophers in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was the Terps’ first conference bout since their 30-9 loss to Nebraska on Dec. 11.
While The Midlands, held on Dec. 29 and Dec. 30, provided competition for the Terps, they still appeared to come out unprepared against the Golden Gophers.
The Terps fell to No. 21 Minnesota, 26-12. The loss marks the second straight dual meet defeat for the Terps, who will have a chance to snap their skid at home against Michigan State on Sunday.
Michael Beck, competing in his first dual of the season, led the meet off for the Terps at 125 pounds. The redshirt freshman fell behind Minnesota’s Steven Polakowski early, and with only an escape, was unable to come from behind.
The Terps rebounded with 133-pound Tyler Goodwin pinning his Gopher opponent in four minutes and 27 seconds. In the highly anticipated matchup of elite wrestlers that followed, 141-pound Alfred Bannister fell, 6-2, to No. 10 Tommy Thorn. .
The bout marked Bannister’s first time on the mat since the Terps meeting with Drexel on Dec. 5, and the redshirt freshman’s first loss since losing 6-3 to then-No. 16 Jamel Hudson on Nov. 29.
After a third consecutive Terps loss, 157-pound captain Lou Mascola stepped onto the mat to turn things around. The No. 18 wrestler in his weight class, Mascola defeated Minnesota’s Brandon Kingsley in a minor decision to knot the score at nine heading into intermission.
After a couple of losses that gave Minnesota a commanding lead in team score, 184-pound Jaron Smith notched his first career Big Ten victory. While it didn’t provide the Terps a lead or a great chance of making up the deficit, the freshman from Columbia was excited by the career accolade.
The heaviest wrestlers for the Golden Gophers, No. 4 Brett Pfarr and No. 7 Michael Kroells, took care of business to close out their team’s victory, winning their bouts by a combined score of 22- 6.
