285-pound wrestler Spencer Myers looks to grab at a Minnesota opponent during the Terps’ 34-12 loss to Minnesota at Xfinity Pavilion on Feb. 8, 2015.
At the NCAA championships in 2011, Terrapins 285-pound wrestler Spencer Myers became the first true freshman in program history to finish the season as an All-American.
Four years later, Myers nearly ended his collegiate career the same way he started it.
In a match whose winner was guaranteed to place in the top eight and earn All-America status, Myers and No. 9 Michael Kroells of Minnesota wrestled into the second tiebreaker before Kroells secured a 4-3 decision.
Myers failed to grasp one last accolade in his prestigious career, but he knocked off two ranked wrestlers after entering the tournament unseeded. And at 157 pounds, Lou Mascola also fared well in the underdog role, upsetting No. 5 Cody Pack of South Dakota State in the first round.
After a disappointing regular season, the Terps made some noise at the NCAA championships this weekend, capturing two wins over top-10 foes. But coach Kerry McCoy had hoped for more out of his wrestlers, regardless of their opponents.
“I feel like they wrestled well, but we wanted an All-American,” McCoy said. “The expectation is to get guys on the podium and win some more matches, so I’m definitely not content at all.”
Myers made the most compelling run at All-America honors, but all three wrestlers faced a tough road toward earning that honor.
Both Myers and 133-pound Geoffrey Alexander faced top-ranked wrestlers in the first round Thursday afternoon, while Mascola wrestled a play-in match for a spot in the Round of 32.
In the first match featuring a Terps wrestler, No. 8 Kevin Devoy sent Alexander to the loser’s bracket with a five-point win.
But Mascola and Myers wrestled better in their opening bouts.
After Mascola avenged his regular-season loss and narrowly defeated Immanuel Kerr-Brown of Duke in his opening match, he shook up the 157-pound bracket with a 10-9 decision over South Dakota State’s Pack, who entered the tournament 34-4.
Though Mascola was marginally disappointed in his result — he set the goal of becoming this year’s national champion last April — he has two victories at the national tournament to build on entering the offseason.
“Winning a match against a kid of that caliber, it was a great feeling,” Mascola said. “Afterwards, I was like, ‘Wow, I really am that good now.”
Later in the day, Myers took the mat against No. 3 Bobby Telford of Iowa. Telford came in as one of favorites and had already beaten Myers twice in his career, including at last year’s championships. But Myers controlled the match from the onset in an eventual 7-5 victory.
While the remaining two wrestlers bowed out of the tournament — Alexander dropped his second match, and Mascola fell in his following two bouts — Myers ensured the Terps had a representative in the quarterfinals.
In a back-and-forth Round-of-16 affair, Myers and No. 14 Joe Stolfi of Bucknell were deadlocked after seven minutes and needed overtime to decide the match. Then in the first tiebreaker period, Myers took Stolfi to his back before earning his first pin of the year.
But after putting himself three wins away from becoming the Terps’ third national champion, Myers suffered back-to-back losses, leaving him one victory short of ending his career as a two-time All-American.
The defeat also left Myers shy of his coach’s expectations entering the weekend.
“They went out there, they wrestled hard, and they put themselves in a position to win,” McCoy said. “But the goal is to go out there and get on the podium, and we didn’t do that.”
