The American University wrestling team (1-3) opened its home season with an unfortunate 32-6 loss to #21 West Virginia University on Nov. 8.
Despite the final score, the matches had strong energy from the home crowd, including standout wins from senior Raymond Lopez and redshirt sophomore Emmanuel Ulrich. Head coach Jason Borrelli described the meet as a valuable early-season experience for his team.
The Eagles ran out to music and fog to start the dual meet greeted by cheers from families, students and alumni filling the stands in Bender Arena.
From the first whistle, the bench and stands were loud and supportive and kept the atmosphere high throughout the match.
The meet began at 125 pounds with sophomore JJ Peace, who opened the afternoon with a fast and competitive first period. Peace had a good recovery on his feet and was quick around the mat, but ultimately dropped a 7-1 decision.
At 133 pounds, Lopez brought the crowd to life. The match was a constant back-and-forth, with Lopez tying the score late in the third period before forcing overtime. A strong takedown in the extra session secured an 8-5 win, the Eagles’ first of the day.
Borrelli praised Lopez’s effort and leadership.
“Anytime an athlete falls behind and comes back to score the last points and win, that’s a really great thing because you can point to that as an example of how we want to wrestle,” Borrelli said.
Graduate student Elijah White took the mat next at 141 pounds and battled through a tough matchup. Despite a hard-fought effort, the match ended 21-3 as his opponent piled up takedowns throughout the bout.
At 149 pounds, redshirt sophomore Gage Owen opened aggressively and stayed tight in a low-scoring match. Both wrestlers pushed the pace but struggled to score, and Owen lost closely 2-0 after three long periods.
The 157-pound match featured redshirt sophomore Kaden Milheim, who wrestled through several tough moments against a strong and fast opponent. Milheim fought hard but was unable to gain momentum and ultimately lost 22-6.
At 165 pounds, sophomore Austin Craft delivered one of the most exciting matches of the afternoon. Craft came back from being down with a strong second period comeback that tied the match at 5-5. After forcing overtime, he narrowly lost 8-5 on a last-second takedown.
Sophomore Hunter Hohman followed at 174 pounds and fought hard from the bottom position throughout his match. Despite his strong efforts he lost by a 17-1 score.
At 184 pounds, redshirt junior Caleb Campos was aggressive early but fell behind on points. He continued to battle, showing endurance and grit in a tough 11-2 loss.
Freshman Caleb Close took on the 197-pound matchup and opened with intensity. He fought hard in each exchange but was held down for much of the match, losing 9-0 to one of West Virginia’s stronger heavyweights.
In the final match of the day, Ulrich took to the mat for the heavyweight match. It stayed scoreless for most of the contest, with both wrestlers looking for the upperhand. Ulrich broke through late, scoring a strong 3-point move in the third period to secure a 4-1 victory and close the meet on a high note for the Eagles.
“I was also proud of Emmanuel up top,” Borrelli said. “After watching all his teammates get beat like that, sometimes it’s hard for you to stay focused and go out there. He did a good job of not being distracted by that.”
After the meet, Borrelli reflected on what the team learned from facing a physical team like the West Virginia lineup.
“On the scoreboard we got beat bad, and in a lot of individual matches we got beat badly,” he said. “But we needed to see that because we haven’t felt that type of wrestling. They’re a physical team that wrestles hard and are really good on the mat.”
He said that while the team didn’t perform at its best, the experience was essential for growth.
“I think we were exposed to and saw a lot that now we can go back to in practice,” Borrelli said. “That’s gonna really help us as we move into a big weekend ahead. This is all just practice and preparation until the postseason.”
Looking ahead, Borrelli said the Eagles will focus on improving neutral attacks and escapes from the bottom position.
“We need to get better in the neutral position, hand fighting, creating leg attacks,” he said. “We didn’t have enough leg attacks and the reason we couldn’t generate our offense is because we couldn’t beat the opponent’s hands in the hand fight.”
He closed with a message for the University community, encouraging students to come out and support the team.
“We’ve got a young, eager team and they’re excited,” Borrelli said. “My message to our fellow students at AU is that athletics are so exciting and there’s just so much energy and enthusiasm from our athletes that work so hard. My plea to them is to come learn wrestling or any sport at AU, just come out and try to support us.”
The Eagles went 1-2 last week at the Boilermaker Duals at Purdue, but will return home to take on George Mason on November 20 at 7 p.m.
This article was edited by Connor Sturniolo, Penelope Jennings and Walker Whalen. Copy editing done by Sabine Kanter-Huchting, Avery Grossman, Ryan Sieve, Audrey Smith and Ava Stuzin
