By Andrew Arnao
Staff Writer
The wrestling team managed a 28-13 victory at Lock Haven last Friday before falling to Penn 23-13 at home on Sunday, concluding the regular season with a 4-16 record.
The match against Lock Haven started well for the Bison with a 6-4 overtime decision by Austin Miller ’15, who leads the Bison in total wins for the year. After losing their next bout, the Orange and Blue rattled off five straight victories, including pins by Alex Pellicciotti ’14 and Stephen McPeek ’14.
“We all had good matches on Friday against the Lock Haven squad,” Miller said. “Alex Pellicciotti in particular had a great match where he pinned a very tough opponent after going up by a considerable margin.”
Miller recorded a major decision in the opening bout against Penn, giving the Bison another early lead. Penn tied the score 4-4 and went ahead 7-4, only for the score to be evened at 7-7 with a decision by Pellicciotti. John Regan ’12 and McPeek each gave the Bison leads with exciting last-second decisions, but Penn tied the score each time. Tied at 13 apiece with two bouts remaining, the Bison suffered a major decision at the hands of No. 10 Micah Burak, and a forfeit in the heavyweight category to end the match.
“This past Sunday we had mixed results,” Corey Lear ’13 said. “[Against Penn,] there were two great wins in the last seconds of the matches at 157 and 174. Wrestling without a heavyweight does not help with the outcome, [and the] effort was put forth to overcome that deficit but we fell short.”
Regan, the team’s only senior, was honored before the match against Penn. Regan ends his tenure as a Bison with a 53-33 record, including a 17-10 record this year.
“We now have a two-and-a-half-week idle period to train hard for the EIWA Championships,” Regan said. “We are sticking to our coaches motto to not work for a final result, rather work to prepare for the next match. Rather than working to win the EIWA, most of us have set our goals to win each match, one match at a time.”
The EIWA Championships will take place March 3-4 at Princeton University.
“We must have a strong showing there and finish the season on a good note,” Miller said. “We have to go in believing we will win … as individuals and as a team.”