Since 2009, the Maryland wrestling team has hosted the Terrapin Duals to open the season. The event afforded the wrestlers a few home matches before having to travel to road duals and open tournaments.
But opening the season with home duals also forced coach Kerry McCoy into having to choose a lineup. If a wrestler competed in the Terrapin Duals, he wouldn’t be available to redshirt.
McCoy didn’t have as good of a grasp of whom he wanted to use in the team duals entering this season, so the coaching staff decided it was best for the Terps to wrestle in open tournaments the first two weekends of the year. Coaches and players said the move paid off heading into the Cavalier Duals on Sunday, their first team match of the 2016-17 campaign.
“We substitute three or four dual matches and now have guys getting four, five, even 10 matches,” McCoy said. “I think they’re ready because they got a wider variety of competition, and, for us to be able to see our team more fully, it worked out really well.”
The team travels to Charlottesville, Virginia, to wrestle the Lock Haven Bald Eagles and the Cavaliers, the latter of whom features ranked wrestlers such as 125-pounder Jack Mueller and 141-pounder George DiCamillo, according to InterMat. The Terps counter with 133-pounder Tyler Goodwin and 149-pounder Alfred Bannister, both of whom InterMat views as among the best in the country at their respective weight classes.
“They’re really tough, they’re scrappy, they get after it,” McCoy said. “They’ve got guys that have had a lot of success at different levels. We’ve just got to be ready to go out there and battle.”
McCoy said the Terps have a tentative idea of their lineup heading into the duals, but it could change before Sunday. After missing the past three weeks of competition with a hamstring strain, 125-pounder Michael Beck is set to compete. Goodwin, Billy Rappo (141), Bannister and Adam Whitesell (149), Patrick Gerish (165), Idris White and Sam Rowell (174), Jaron Smith (184), David-Brian Whisler and Garrett Wesneski (197) and heavyweight Youssif Hemida are all set to make the trip, McCoy said. McCoy added he hasn’t settled on a starter at 157 pounds. Justin Alexander, Danny Boychuck and Jakob Restrepo are all battling for the spot.
Delaying the start of the team dual season allowed McCoy to see his wrestlers in different environments. His wrestlers said they’ve benefited from this year’s schedule change, too.
“It’s a little bit better. Terrapin Duals is more of a warm-up just to get some Ws under your belt, get your confidence up,” said Rappo, a redshirt senior who has competed in multiple Terrapin Duals. “Going to these open tournaments, it’s more competition, and better competition than we’ve had before. It gets us a better understanding of where we are.”
Bannister, a redshirt sophomore in his third year with the program, believes the setup of this campaign has him and the Terps prepared for the schedule ahead.
“It’s actually benefiting us a lot to have it this way,” Bannister said. “At the tournaments, you get more matches and a lot more mat time instead of jumping in the duals with one match. It kind of warms us up for the long season. We’re definitely more prepared.”
The Terps competed at the Bearcat Open in Binghamton, New York, last weekend, but only Wesneski, Rowell and Alex Vargas (125) competed from the group of grapplers going to Charlottesville. McCoy said that was by design, allowing his team to fully prepared for the Cavalier Duals.
“The ultimate goal every time you step on the mat, you want to get your hand raised,” McCoy said. “We want to go out there and perform at a high level, hopefully get a bunch of wins and come away with something to be happy about after the weekend.”
