Buffalo Wrestling competes at Maryland's Terrapin Duals Downs Davidson, Maryland

Wrestling opened up their season at the Terrapin Duals in College Park, Maryland this afternoon, facing off against Davidson in their first dual action of the season. The Bulls came out on fire collecting pinfalls in 2 of their first 3 bouts. Kyle Akins, stepping into the spot of UB great Max Soria didn't disappoint dominating his opponent 14-2. Not to be outdone, Bryan Lantry, making his first appearance as well pinned his opponent 1:31 into the first period to put the Bulls up 10-0 early.

The domination continued as Jason Estevez won by pinfall and Colt Cotten and Tyler Rill each collected forfeits. In his first match in blue and white Clarion transfer Tim Schaefer won in dramatic fashion with a late escape and takedown to win 10-8.

From then on, UB didn't have a close call in a match with Muhamed McBryde and Joe Ariola winning handily, with James "Gumby" Benjamin registering a pinfall and freshman Jake Gunning rolling to a 11-2  victory to put UB on top 47-0.

That was as impressive of an opening as I've ever seen, and UB shutout its first Division I opponent since they beat Syracuse 47-0 in the 1999-2000 season before Syracuse shutttered their program. Funny enough, UB's last two D-I shutouts were by the same score.

UB starts off the season 1-0 and will face B1G foe Maryland later in the afternoon - you can watch that match live on the Big Ten Network if you are a subscriber.

UPDATE

Heading into the second dual meet of the day the Bulls were riding a wave of momentum heading into the matchup against B1G foe Maryland, and it paid off. Kyle Akins had a clutch 6-5 decision to get the Bulls on the board first, then after dropping the next two matches, Colt Cotten picked up a close 2-1 decision to bring UB back within 1 point. After Tim Schaefer lost a close bout to former NCAA qualifier Lou Mascola, the Bulls reeled off 4 straight victories with the most emphatic being James Benjamin's 11-2 major decision victory to seal the victory for the Bulls.

I cannot understate how big this win is for UB as a team, the Big Ten Conference is the premier wrestling conference in the nation and beating one of its members in a dual meet is significant. As far as I can tell this is the first win over a B1G team in program history. This team looks completely different than last year with the way they fought in this win. Winning close matches, and grinding out wins is the way to be a successful team in dual meets and UB didn't do that last year, and this team has already shown that they can grind out wins and dominate when they need to.

From here the Bulls will have some time off to prepare for the Northeast Duals in Albany, NY on November 15th.

Davidson (W, 47-0)

125: Kyle Akins won by maj. dec. 14-2         (4-0)
133: Bryan Lantry won by fall                       (10-0)
141: Jason Estevez won by fall 2:27           (16-0)
149: Colt Cotten won by forfeit                     (22-0)
157: Tim Schaefer won by dec. 10-8           (25-0)
165: Tyler Rill won by forfeit                          (31-0)
174: Muhamed McBryde won dec. 4-0       (34-0)
184: Joe Ariola won by dec. 7-2                   (37-0)
197: James Benjamin won by fall                (43-0)
295: Jake Gunning won by maj dec. 11-2  (47-0)

Maryland (W, 18-13)

125: Kyle Akins dec. Jerry Simmons 6-5                                          (3-0)
133: Tyler Goodwin maj. dec. Bryan Lantry 14-5                             (3-4)
141: Alfred Bannister dec. Jason Estevez 3-2                                 (3-7)
149: Colt Cotten dec. Wade Hodges 2-1                                          (6-7)
157: Lou Mascola dec. Tim Schaefer 13-9                 (6-10)
165: Tyler Rill dec. Brendan Burnham 3-2                 (9-10)
174: Muhamed McBryde dec. Tyler Manion 4-1                              (12-10)
184: Joe Ariola dec. Mark Colabucci 6-3                                         (15-10)
197: James Benjamin maj. dec. Garrett Wisniewski 11-2          (19-10)
285: Dawson Peck dec. Jake Gunning 3-1                                     (19-13)

***

In addition to the group in Maryland, UB also had a number of wrestlers in open (redshirt-preserving) competition at Clarion University in Pennsylvania.

125: Justin Patrick

Patrick (UB) technical fall Nick DeRosa (CSU) 20-5

Patrick (UB) tech. fall Kevin Miller (UP-J) 18-2

141: Sean Peacock

Peacock (UB) tech. fall Noah Burkhart (UP-J) 21-4

174: Ryan Kromer

Gabe Stark (CSU) dec. Kromer (UB) 14-6

197: Nate Rose

Rose (UB) maj. dec. Jacob Parker (Pitt) 22-10

Phil Sprenkle (LHU) dec. Rose (UB) 3-1