The wrestling team defeated The Citadel so fast on Sunday that it had time to catch some of the second quarter of the Super Bowl. The Blue Devils knocked off the Bulldogs 33-11, winning all but three of their matches. The win upped Duke's record to 2-2 overall, while The Citadel fell to 4-10.
"We were very pleased with the outcome," head coach Bill Harvey said. "They did a really good job of doing what they had to do."
After Duke's Tom Stockett won at 118 lbs. by forfeit and the Citadel's Marcus Wright slipped by Duke's Jeff Demenekow 9-6 at the 126-lb. level, the Blue Devils had a streak of six straight wins. Included in that streak were two efforts Harvey was especially pleased with.
The first of those was by junior Dan Covatta, who defeated Tony Nguyen 20-7 at the 142-lb. level. Senior Scott Frinzi's 18-0 win over Samuel Hutsell at 150 followed Covatta's win.
Even with the six-match winning streak, the Bulldogs were never out of the overall match until junior Jacob Hart pinned Thomas Daniel in 1:37.
Then, as an added bonus, sophomore Jesse Raia pinned his opponent, Rasheem Nelmos, in just 43 seconds. Harvey said both wrestlers used a cradle move to pin their opponents.
"When they do pin, they pin with the cradle," Harvey said. "We work on that stuff in practice, but it doesn't always work in the matches. When it does work, we're obviously pleased."
Duke lost the final two matches of the night to The Citadel's Stephenson brothers. Harvey praised the efforts of both Chad Stephenson, who knocked off Duke's Dion Santo 17-6 at the 190-lb. mark, and his brother Craig, who defeated Seth Coren at the heavyweight division.
The Blue Devils next match is this Thursday against VPI at 9 p.m. in Cameron Indoor Stadium. The next day, Duke will hit the road for a 5 p.m. match at Davidson. Harvey said his team should be prepared for the two consecutive contests, given its previous participation in four tournaments where the wrestlers often had to hit the mat in consecutive days. Harvey expects the Blue Devils should have a two-match winning streak going into Davidson.
"We're expecting to do well," Harvey said. "We're looking forward to it. [VPI] is a match we should win."
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