The Blue Devils ended their Big Ten road trip in a big way Sunday.
After dropping a 20-19 nail-biter due to criteria against Northwestern Friday at Welsh-Ryan Arena in Evanston, Ill., Duke rallied Sunday in West Lafayette, Ind., to upend No. 24 Purdue on Senior Day 28-18 at Holloway Gym. The win was the Blue Devils’ third in program history against a Big Ten foe and their second upset of a ranked opponent this season.
“It proves to our guys that we’re capable of going out and beating quality teams,” Duke head coach Glen Lanham said. “It’s a great team effort right now and our guys are going. It’s good for our program. Duke—my first year was the first year that they’ve wrestled Big Ten programs when we put them on the schedule. Now we go and we beat Maryland, we beat Michigan State, we beat Purdue, so we’re going into the Big Ten and we’re taking care of business.”
In each of the duals on its weekend jaunt through the Midwest, Duke (6-9) notched four bonus-point victories to set the tone. Against the Boilermakers (9-8), those four victories propelled the squad to an impressive run against the heavily favored hosts.
Thayer Atkins kicked off the match at 125 pounds with the first fall of his career in quick fashion at the 2:03 mark to put the Blue Devils ahead 6-0. After forfeiting at 133 pounds and dropping a major decision at 141 pounds, Duke trailed 10-6, but No. 10 Mitch Finesilver—who had his 13-match winning streak snapped by Northwestern's No. 6 Jason Tsirtsis two days earlier—scored a strong 9-1 major decision to knot the dual at 10 apiece.
Following a Purdue forfeit at 157 pounds, No. 18 Jake Faust picked up his second win of the weekend, dominating Andy Hoselton for a 15-0 technical fall and handing Duke a 21-10 lead with four weights remaining. Three matches later, No. 5 Conner Hartmann did not disappoint at 197 pounds, putting an exclamation point on the Blue Devil victory with a 13-0 major decision—the 92nd victory of his career—that put the match out of reach.
“That six [points at 125 pounds] was huge because you need to get out there with a big start. That’s what Thayer did for us, so I was excited,” Lanham said. “It’s credibility for our program. When our alumni can go out and say, ‘Hey, Duke is competing against the toughest conference in the country and not only competing but beating teams out of that conference,’ it’s definitely big for us.”
In Friday’s contest, Duke fell behind 13-4 after four weight classes against the Wildcats (2-13), but rallied through the next five weights to gain a 19-16 lead heading into the final matchup. But heavyweight Brendan Walsh was unable to capitalize, despite recording a similar win-or-go-home victory against North Carolina a little more than a week ago.
Walsh faced off against Northwestern's Conan Jennings, but an early stall warning in the second period haunted the redshirt senior at the end of the match. The Garnet Valley, Pa., native rode hard in the third period but was one second shy of capturing the riding time bonus point and the referee called a second stall in the final two seconds that gave Jennings the 2-1 decision.
Since the Blue Devils forfeited at 133 pounds, when the dual went to criteria to break the 19-19 team tie, Northwestern was awarded the one-point victory.
“I felt pretty good about [the win-or-go-home situation],” Lanham said. “[Walsh] did wrestle well enough to win the match. The dual was a really good dual, a lot of action, and for a ref to step in and do that and take the dual out of the athletes’ hands, for me, it just doesn’t make sense. But at the end of the day, it is what it is, so you move on and recover, which our guys, I felt like they did.”
Aside from Faust and Hartmann, junior Connor Bass finished the weekend undefeated, though he did not have to wrestle Sunday due to the Boilermakers’ forfeit at 157 pounds. Atkins, the Finesilver twins, redshirt senior Trey Adamson and sophomore Alec Schenk—competing for the first time in a month—all headed back to Durham sporting 1-1 records.
With the regular season in the books, Duke will now take two weeks off to rest and prepare for the ACC Championships in Charlottesville, Va., at John Paul Jones Arena March 6. The Blue Devils were 1-4 in conference this season, with the lone win at rival North Carolina Feb. 10.
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