Coming off two losses with a combined score of 59-18, the Maryland wrestling team kept their match with Indiana closer on Friday night. Still, failures in the middleweight classes were their undoing.
The Terps lost three bouts by two points or less in their 22-19 loss to the Hoosiers.
“We were close in three matches, but we just weren’t able to secure it,” coach Kerry McCoy said. “It’s disappointing to not get the win, but it’s encouraging to see that our guys are that close.”
Michael Beck fell in the 125-pound match, 3-2, to Elijah Oliver, but the Terps rebounded quickly. A 7-2 decision from 133-pounder Billy Rappo tied the meet, and 141-pounder Ryan Diehl pinned Cole Weaver in his first dual match of the season.
But with the Terps up 9-3, they began to unravel.
Indiana scored 19 unanswered points to stretch their lead to 22-6 before late bonus-point victories from 197-pounder David-Brian Whisler and heavyweight Youssif Hemida narrowed the deficit to three points. Whisler earned a major decision, while Hemida’s pin of Fletcher Miller was his eighth dual victory in his past nine matches.
Hemida trailed Miller by two points in the third period before pinning him with just about a minute and a half to go.
“Before the pin I was a little bit upset, but I’m happy to get my hand raised and give six points for the team,” Hemida said. “It wasn’t enough to get that dual meet win, but it felt nice to get the pin when I was down two points.”
Between the early and late victories for the Terps, the Hoosiers earned two major decisions and a tech fall, and those bonus points aided them as they extended their lead. McCoy said those bonus points and the Terps’ failures in close matches were significant factors in the result.
“We knew coming into this match that it would come down to bonus points, and also we needed to get an upset somewhere,” McCoy said. “We were close in three matches, we just weren’t able to secure it.”
Rappo and Diehl’s victories were the bright spots early on, and McCoy said finishing the way the Terps did with Whisler and Hemida’s victories were exciting and encouraging.
“One of the first things coach McCoy came in the locker room and talked to us about was ending on a good note,” Whisler said. “The only thing that can make a loss worse is ending with a loss, or a couple losses throughout the lineup.”
While disappointed with his team’s seventh straight Big Ten loss and eighth straight loss overall, McCoy expressed optimism for the Terps with the Big Ten Championships about a month away.
“The biggest thing is having the guys continue to believe in what they’re doing, believing in themselves and believing in each other,” McCoy said. “When you’re that close, you have really have a choice. We’re that close and we didn’t get it done, or hey, next time I’m going to get it. That’s what we want these guys to be focused on.”
