The boys are back in town.
After a two-month road stretch, Duke returns to its home mats Saturday in Card Gymnasium in a trio of dual matchups. The Blue Devils kickstart nine straight duals as they face off against nonconference opponents Drexel, American and Appalachian State throughout the day.
“It feels really good to get back in Card [Gymnasium],” head coach Glen Lanham said. “It’s been a while since we have been able to get back in there and wrestle in front of our fans, so we’re really excited about that.”
Despite dropping its last three duals, Duke (5-4) established some momentum last weekend at the Appalachian State Open. Three grapplers—freshman Mitch Finesilver, redshirt junior Trey Adamson and sophomore Connor Bass—earned titles at the Open as they were able to break away from the monotony of dual competition. Although the Open was a different kind of atmosphere, Lanham hopes it will provide a boost that will present itself on the mats Saturday.
“Any time you can have some type of success, it’s always good going in,” Lanham said. “It helped us kind of refocus on some areas that we needed to work on and hopefully we’ll see that product with these three duals coming up.”
The key for the Blue Devils at home hinges on keeping success in perspective. Even at their best, they have struggled to maintain consistency from match to match this season.
When Duke captured an 18-17 win at N.C. State Jan. 7—its fourth straight dual win at the time—it appeared to set the squad up well going into the Pitt Duals. Two tough losses in Pittsburgh and another against then-No.14 Virginia the following week pulled the rug out from under the team’s feet.
“There are definitely highs and lows,” Lanham said. “We just need to have more consistency in those matches…. That’s the big thing we look for going into these three duals coming up this weekend, is just to be consistent, to wrestle hard throughout and focus in the areas we’ve worked on all week long and try to implement those throughout the match.”
A bright spot for the Blue Devils Saturday might be that they have been in this position before on a bigger stage. With the Grapple at the Garden under their belt, the wrestlers have experience facing three separate teams in a single day.
“You’re going to have three matches in a day at the NCAA tournament and you have to be able to perform,” Lanham said. “That’s what I’m trying to tell [our guys] is to stay focused and be able to compete at a high level because at nationals if you win three duals all in one day you’re going to be All-American.”
Saturday’s field of competition will be weaker than what Duke will likely face in the ACC and NCAA tournaments come March. None of the teams that the Blue Devils will face have winning records.
The 10 a.m. match pits the Blue Devils against Drexel. The Dragons (5-7) are 1-3 in their last four dual matches, including a tight 21-20 win against Army that went to a tiebreaker, which was decided in Drexel’s favor, 48-43.
Next up, Duke will hit the mats again at 2 p.m. against American. Despite a strong 5-2 start to the season, the Eagles (5-6) have dropped four straight duals since a 22-19 win against Harvard Jan. 11.
In the last dual of the day, the Blue Devils will face their toughest and most familiar foe—Appalachian State. The Mountaineers (6-6) have met Duke twice this year on the mat, both in open competition at the Southern Scuffle and in their own tournament last weekend.
At home against the Blue Devils, Appalachian State’s Jacob Grigg defeated Bailey Jack to advance to the third place match at 133, where he took the victory. In addition, Marcus Johnson scored back-to-back pins in the 184-pound weight class against Duke’s Alec Schenk and Tyler Patrick to capture third place.
“[Appalachian] State is definitely coming in to get us because we’ve beaten them twice now,” Lanham said. “They’re only going to wrestle one dual and that’s us and we’re going to wrestle three duals that day. We have to be sharp throughout.”
In order to match the success of the three duals in the Grapple at the Garden, the Duke squad will indeed have to be sharp to return to its winning ways.
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