In wrestling, if you can't make weight on match day, you can't compete.
AU head coach Mark Cody wanted to be sure that his wrestlers could make weight on three straight days, since they will have to at the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association championships as well as the national tournament, so he scheduled matches this weekend for three consecutive days. The team responded with a win on Friday before losing twice on the weekend.
On Friday, the Eagles defeated Franklin & Marshall, 31-18. Each team gave up three forfeits, so only four matches were wrestled, with AU winning all of them.
Freshman Chris Stout had one of his best performances of the year, recording a major-decision victory over Andrew Smith, 18-5. The nation's No. 6 157-pounder, AU's Muzaffar Abdurakhmanov, defeated Mike Parziale, 23-16, in a match that was close at the end of third period. Sophomore Dwayne Hash-Barberis displayed his explosive ability with a pinfall only 50 seconds into his match against Steven Gregory. Senior Daniel Waters also won with a technical fall, 25-10, over Chris Richey.
On Saturday the Eagles suffered a gut-wrenching defeat to the Virginia Cavaliers, 24-19. Despite giving up 18 points through three forfeits, AU had the match in hand going into the last bout. First, victories by Abdurakhmanov, junior Tom Kniezewski and Waters had cut the deficit from 18 to 11 with three bouts remaining.
Freshman Tyler Flatt battled Virginia's Chudi Araih in the night's most exciting match. Heading into the third period with the score tied at 1, it was obvious that Flatt was oversized but not outclassed. Virginia coaches pleaded with referee for a stalling call against Flatt the entire match.
But Araih took no true shots, whereas Flatt was had a number of near takedowns. Two late stalling calls against Araih sent the Virginia coaches into a frenzy and Flatt off the mat with a 2-1 victory.
After a pinfall win by freshman Josh Glenn, AU trailed by two points, with freshman heavyweight Adam LoPiccolo's match remaining. LoPiccolo had come up big for the Eagles all year long, but Virginia's Nick Smith outsized him this night. LoPiccolo wrestled from the bottom position through most of the match, rarely excaping the massive Smith's ride. Smith won, 8-5, sealing a narrow Virginia win.
On Sunday the Eagles again fell short, 27-19, to South Dakota State University. Opening the match by bumping up a weight to 197 pounds, Glenn made a rare mistake by pulling his opponent Cody Nehl's arm over his shoulder. Nehl capitalized on this and applied cradle, using it to pin the Eagles' star freshman.
LoPiccolo avenged his loss from a night earlier with a pinfall victory of his own. The consistent Kniezewski earned a major-decision victory over Dusty Kavitz before freshman Chris Stout won a crucial 12-5 decision after wrestling at a higher 157 pounds.
Waters and Hash-Barberis also won Sunday, but AU's customary three forfeits again doomed them to defeat.
Coming into Saturday, the Eagles had won four of their previous five duals despite giving away 18 points. The Eagles continue to win the majority of the matches they wrestle, and forfeits won't be an issue when the Eagles compete at the EIWA conference championships starting March 4 in Annapolis, Md.
