Heading into its fifth season in the nation’s toughest conference, the Maryland wrestling program was counting on Youssif Hemida to lead the way.
Last year, the heavyweight became the Terps’ first All-American since 2014. He followed that up by winning a silver medal at the U-23 World Championships in Romania in November.
But once Hemida returned to College Park, he unexpectedly sat out Maryland’s first three duals. With the team’s depth already rocked by a number of injuries, each of those three matches was a lopsided defeat.
Now that Hemida is back on the mat, coach Kerry McCoy and the Terps are hoping that the senior can turn around the team’s luck and avert a winless season.
“We’re kind of thin right now,” McCoy said. “We don’t have a whole lot of people to fall back on, so it’s important for our top guys to put the work in and really push each other.”
[Read more: Maryland wrestling’s Big Ten struggles continue in 36-3 loss to Indiana]
Many of Maryland’s top guys haven’t made much of an impact this year. 197-pounder DB Whisler, 149-pounder Ryan Diehl and 184-pounder Jaron Smith — all projected starters — have combined to wrestle in one dual meet.
Whisler’s replacement, Niko Cappello, has been forced to move up in weight from 184 pounds. Cappello and Michael Doetsch, Diehl’s backup, have both gone winless in duals so far. The lone bright spot among the replacements has been Smith’s backup, Kyle Jasenski, who’s picked up two dual victories on the season.
The absence of Whisler, Diehl and Smith made the Terps miss Hemida even more. As the shorthanded squad started its dual slate with losses to Penn, Navy and Central Michigan, he was itching to get back on the mat.
“I always want to be out there wrestling for Maryland,” Hemida said. “It was hard watching my teammates compete without me.”
[Read more: Youssif Hemida is back to lead Maryland wrestling into the Big Ten gauntlet]
Making his return over the weekend, Hemida showed why he’s the nation’s No. 8 heavyweight, when he took down Jacob Aven of Purdue and Fletcher Miller of Indiana.
In his first match of the season, Hemida controlled Aven from start to finish, and although he only won by a single point, his coach lauded him for pushing the pace. The senior followed that performance up with a much more decisive win over Miller, man-handling him on the ground for nearly all three periods.
But Hemida was one of only three Terps to secure a victory all weekend. While he notched a total of six team points against the Boilermakers and Hoosiers, the rest of Maryland’s wrestlers were blown out by a combined score of 64-7.
During their first four seasons in the Big Ten, the Terps earned just one conference victory, but they managed to win 16 nonconference duals in that span. This year, though, Maryland has started 0-3 in nonconference play, and with six of the team’s nine remaining matches against ranked opponents, a winless season is a real possibility.
It goes without saying that to pick up a victory, the Terps will need their only ranked wrestler to be at his best. But Hemida can’t win a dual on his own — the team knows that other wrestlers must step up amid the injuries.
“We need people to wrestle to win,” 149-pounder Alfred Bannister said. “If you don’t feel good, you have to use what you’ve got to win, and I think that’s what we need more of on this team.”
