The wrestling team returned to the mat for the first time in over a month on Saturday afternoon. From the results, it was obvious that the Blue Devils had not been wasting any time playing in the snow over winter break.
Duke crushed Delaware State 31-12 in Cameron Indoor Stadium, winning six of the eight contested matches. Of those six wins, four were by major decisions--worth four, rather than three, overall points--and one was a pin.
It was the Blue Devils' (1-0) first dual match of the year, while Delaware State falls to 1-4 with the result.
There were two forfeits on the day. Duke's Tom Stockett won one of those at 118 lbs. to start the match, and Delaware State wrestler Leland Nelson won the other forfeit when Duke was unable to suit a wrestler up in the heavyweight division.
In between the forfeits, however, were eight matches. The Blue Devils lost the first two, but then ran off six straight victories. The resulting lopsided overall match score did not tell the whole story, however, according to Duke head coach Bill Harvey.
"The overall match score may not have been close, but there sure were some tight individual matches," Harvey said. "I thought they were really an improved team over last year. We're not as strong as we were last year, but I thought our kids did a pretty good job for the most part."
Particularly impressive was junior Dan Covatta, who pinned his opponent, Koenig Joseph, with four seconds left in the second period. Covatta dominated the entire match, taking Joseph down and getting back points, only to let Joseph escape and repeat the routine. Covatta led the match 15-3 when he pinned Joseph.
At 150 lbs., Blue Devil senior Scott Frinzi destroyed Kerry Cohen. Frinzi ran off the first seven points of the match and ended up with a 16-2 victory. Next up at 158 lbs. was freshman Matt Mapes, who is the backup kicker and punter on the football team.
Mapes led his match the entire way, coasting to a 19-11 victory. Mapes raced to a 14-6 lead in the first period, and after that the match was largely over.
Harvey was particularly impressed with Mapes and Covatta's performances. But he was quick to point out that all the Blue Devils wrestled well after their month-long layoff.
Also winning four-point major decisions for the Blue Devils were freshman Jacob Hart, with an 18-10 victory, and sophomore Jesse Raia, who shut out Phillip Brown 14-0. Rounding out the action was sophomore Dion Santo with a 13-6 victory over George Polk.
Duke appeared to be in much better physical shape than Delaware State. The Blue Devil wrestlers wore down their opponents, and often scored most of their points in the later rounds.
"We've been back here since the third of January working to get back into shape," Harvey said. "Our conditioning is not where we want it to be yet, but I'm pleased with how far along we are right now with it."
Duke travels to VMI for a match Tuesday night. It will be another important test for the Blue Devils as they prepare for upcoming Atlantic Coast Conference matches.
"It's early in the year and we're about where we want to be," Harvey said. "We need to improve and get a little better, as I think everyone does. As we do that, we'll get better as the year goes on."
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