Sunk by early deficits, the sputtering Blue Devils dropped duals against Eastern Michigan and No. 9 Pittsburgh Sunday.
Duke began competition in Pittsburgh with matches against Eastern Michigan. The Blue Devils fell into a 13-point hole after only four matches before redshirt senior Immanuel Kerr-Brown stopped the skid with a valiant 8-6 decision against Eagles’ redshirt senior Brandon Zeerip. Duke then staged an improbable rally to tie Eastern Michigan at 13-13 with only the final two bouts remaining. But the Eagles iced the Blue Devils' hopes of completing the comeback with wins in both the 197 and 285 weight classes.
“Overall I thought that we were flat," head coach Glen Lanham said. "There were some positives, but I think that we had a hangover from the N.C. State match [last week]. We thought that Eastern Michigan was going to lie down for us, and we were caught off guard.”
All indicators showed momentum to be with the Blue Devils (5-3, 1-1 in the ACC) following their 13-point run when redshirt junior Conner Hartmann approached the mat. Hartmann at 197 pounds entered Sunday’s duals 8-1, the No. 5 individual in the country and buoyed by the momentum of his team’s 13-0 swing.
But a Duke comeback was not in the books.
Hartmann lost a tough 3-2 decision to Eastern Michigan redshirt junior Anthony Abro in the final seconds of the match. For teammates and coaches looking on, it was hard to swallow.
“We had come from so far back to get where we were," Lanham said. "Watching one of our own All-Americans get upset really took the wind out of our sails.”
Duke then set up for ACC foe Pittsburgh (7-2, 2-0). Again finding themselves behind early, the Blue Devils fought back—boosted by an impressive rebound performance by Hartmann—to set up for a thrilling winner-take-all heavyweight battle. Trailing 17-15, Duke’s chances of registering its second ACC win on the heels of its thrilling 18-17 win against N.C. State rested with redshirt junior Brendan Walsh.
Walsh and his Panther opponent Ryan Solomon each refused to lose, trading advantages against each other and mounting escapes to keep their teams’ hopes alive. When overtime was not enough to separate the duo, the match progressed into a tiebreaker situation.
In the end, it was a last second Solomon escape that gave Pittsburgh the separation it needed to edge Duke 2-1 and remain undefeated in ACC play.
“Finishing 0-2 on the day leaves a bad taste in our mouths,” Lanham said, “But a year ago I don’t think there were too many people who would believe we would play the ninth-ranked team in the country as close as we did.... We’ll take things in stride.”
Two Blue Devils posted perfect 2-0 showings on the day. Redshirt sophomore Jake Faust defeated Eastern Michigan’s Devan Marry 6-2 and then Pittsburgh’s Cody Wiercioch 11-9 to advance to 12-7 on the season. Kerr-Brown followed his 8-6 triumph against the Eagles with a dominant 8-2 effort against the Panthers—good for his 15th win of the season.
“[Kerr-Brown] has always been pretty steady for us,” Lanham said. “He goes out and wrestles hard. He’s a team captain. So, for him to pick up two wins on the day was great.”
Duke has until Jan. 16 to regroup and refocus when it faces Virginia. Even with a disappointing conclusion to the day, Lanham has a reason to be optimistic. He believes that the sting of defeat will give his team the shock it needs to return to form.
“We got punched in the mouth pretty good,” Lanham said. “It was a wake up call. It caught our guys off guard, but today has definitely been a learning experience for us. We’re going to keep moving forward.”
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