Three days after they were outmatched against No. 5 Virginia Tech, the Blue Devils appeared well on their way to a rout of their own Wednesday before they had to hold off a furious rally to avenge last year's defeat against Gardner-Webb.
Duke traveled to Paul Porter Arena in Boiling Springs, N.C., and raced out to a 20-3 lead before holding off the Bulldogs 23-22. Last year, Gardner-Webb pulled ahead in the last bout to beat the Blue Devils 19-18, with Boyce Cornwell defeating Duke’s Brendan Walsh, but the Bulldogs dug a little too deep of a hole this time.
Crucial bout wins that gave Duke an early lead included fourth-ranked Jacob Kasper’s technical fall against Cornwell in the second bout at heavyweight, Cole Baumgartner’s pin in the 133-pound weight class and Zach Finesilver’s pin just before intermission that put the Blue Devils in front by 17.
“We definitely had a bad taste in our mouth from last year,” Duke head coach Glen Lanham said. “These guys, they’re going to come out and give us a hard fight. Our guys competed well.”
Lanham's team led 23-7 heading into the final three bouts of the night, with a victory seemingly in hand. But Garret Neff and No. 17 Connor Bass were pinned by Tyler Marinelli and Austin Trott, respectively, allowing Gardner-Webb to score 12 quick points to trim the Blue Devil lead to 23-19.
A technical fall or a pin in the last bout for the Bulldogs would have won the match, but Alec Schenk held Hunter Gamble to a 4-1 decision at 184 pounds, resulting in just three points for Gardner-Webb and a one-point Blue Devil victory.
“Even in the matches we lost, we still attacked,” Lanham said. “Obviously we need to make some adjustments... But it's all a learning experience.”
After the Bulldogs' Kyle Ash beat Luke Farinaro in a 5-3 decision in the first bout of the match, Kasper was dominant in his 18th straight win to spark a 20-0 run for Duke. The reigning ACC Wrestler of the Week finished off the first period 10-0 and soon notched the technical fall, making it 17-0 in 4:44 and putting the Blue Devils in front 5-3.
Thayer Atkins followed Kasper with a victory against Landon LoAlbo in a 7-3 decision, and Baumgartner had his way with Phillip Anderson, taking an 8-0 lead by the end of the first period and pinning him in 4:08. Finesilver then pinned opponent Dallas Roemer in 4:12 at 141 pounds to give Duke its fourth bout in a row.
“They had a solid lineup from [149 pounds] to [184 pounds],” Lanham said. “We knew we had to start out quick, our guys had to get bonus points.”
The run ended with an 11-0 major decision by Gardner-Webb's Chris Vassar against Xaviel Ramos at 149 pounds, but Jake Faust responded by defeating Ryan Mosley 2-0 at 157 pounds to give the Blue Devils their last points of the night.
Duke will now prepare for two ACC home duals against Virginia at 2 p.m. Sunday and rival North Carolina at 7 p.m. next Wednesday, both in Card Gymnasium.
“I feel pretty good,” Lanham said. “Our guys are competing, they want to go into these next three duals and they want to win them. We want to sweep these next three duals and we know its not going to be easy, but if we compete hard, we have a good chance of winning all three of them.”
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.