The No. 22 Terrapin wrestling team was down by one point to Virginia when Hudson Taylor, the Terps’ final wrestler, took the mat in the second-to-last match of the day.
The rest of Taylor’s teammates gathered behind their coaches on the corner of the mat, all watching the match that would make or break their ACC tournament championship hopes.
The No. 1 Taylor went up 7-0 early against No. 2 Dennis Drury of North Carolina in the 197-pound final and staved off an attempted comeback with a near-fall and three takedowns for the 10-5 victory, giving the Terps their first conference tournament championship since 1973. The Terps edged the Cavaliers 86.5 to 84.5 while having five wrestlers win ACC titles in their weight classes and six gain NCAA tournament berths.
“It was a great day for us,” coach Pat Santoro said. “It was kind of like the season. It came down to the wire, like a lot of our dual meets, but we came out on top.”
Heading into the championship round, Virginia held a seven-point lead. The Terps closed the gap as the round went on and Terps racked up wins and individual championships.
The Terps took the lead briefly with sophomore Mike Letts’ win at 174 pounds, but Virginia’s Rocco Caponi won it back at 184 pounds before Taylor cemented the win.
In a tournament often defined by individual play, the Terps gave a complete team performance to win their 21st ACC title. All 10 Terp wrestlers made it to the semifinals of their weight classes, and six advanced to the finals, the most of any school.
Even the Terps who were eliminated or did not compete were on hand to cheer on their teammates.
“I think we’re all really, really happy with our performance here,” Taylor said. “We all did well, and we’ve got six great guys going to nationals. But although we are taking six, there are many other guys who deserve it, as well. We couldn’t have gotten here without the whole team.”
The championship round for the Terps started with redshirt sophomore Steven Bell taking on Darius Little of N.C. State in the 133-pound weight class. Bell fell behind 4-3 heading into the third and final period. But he escaped from Little’s grasp to tie it up, and with only 10 seconds left, he slammed Little to the mat and got a 6-5 win.
The win set the tone for the entire final round, when Terp wrestlers repeatedly took down their opponents and made their way to the award stand.
Sophomore Jon Kohler won three upsets in a row to take his championship. Kohler started as the fifth seed out of six in the 141-pound bracket. But he upset No. 3 Chris Diaz of Virginia Tech 6-0, No. 2 Nick Stabile of North Carolina 5-2 and finally No. 4 Nick Nelson of Virginia 3-0.
“It’s good to see all the hard work pay off,” Kohler said. “But I don’t really see them as upsets. Everyone in the ACC is a tough opponent.”
Freshman Brian Letters managed an upset of his own over Tar Heel Thomas Scotton at 157 pounds. The score was tied 2-2 and neither had scored since the first period. With nine seconds left, Letters grabbed Scotton and with one second left was able to throw him to the ground for the two-point takedown and the 3-2 win.
Letts, No. 1 at 174 pounds, defeated Virginia’s Chris Henrich 4-3 with a reversal in the third period, winning his second consecutive ACC championship.
Freshman Eric Medina came in second at 149 pounds after a loss to top-seeded Darrion Caldwell of N.C. State. He was the only Terp out of six to reach the finals of a weight class without winning.
Medina did receive one of the conference’s four wild card bids, as decided on by the coaches, so all six Terps who advanced to the finals of their respective weight classes will appear in the NCAA tournament.
“That’s the most amazing part, that half of the team made it,” Kohler said. “I’m almost as excited about that as I am about my own championship.”
“All 10 guys really did the best they could,” Santoro said. “We just showed that if you keep working hard, good things happen.”
But Santoro will only allow one day to bask in the win before getting back to work.
“Now, we’ve got to start getting prepared for the NCAA tournament,” Santoro said. “We’ll have a light practice Monday, but then we’ll have to get right back into it. The nationals have been what these guys were working for, what they want. Now we’ve got to make it happen.”
The six qualifying Terps will head to the NCAA tournament March 20-22 in St. Louis.
“Every tournament, people make mistakes,” Taylor said. “Now, it’s our job to work on those mistakes so we can have the strongest showing possible at nationals. We’ve got five ACC champions; now we want five national champions.”
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