This past weekend, the Blue Jay wrestling team took a trip up to Allentown, Penn. to take on division opponents Gettysburg, Ursinus and Muhlenberg - all of which have former Conference Champions and All-Americans in their lineups.
While the Jays team contains a large portion of freshmen and sophomores, they surprised many with some impressive individual victories. Although the Jays were only able to beat Gettysburg, coming within a few points of Ursinus and Muhlenberg have the Jays setting their sights on the rest of the Centennial Conference.
Up first was Ursinus, who have won the Centennial Conference Championship four times in the last five years. The Jays were slow out of the gate, dropping decisions at the 125- and 133-pound weight classes. But Rocky Barilla took one back at 141, beating his opponent by a decision of 7-1. After struggling to find a regular place his freshmen year, he has recaptured his form this year and is one of the most consistent wrestlers in the Jays lineup.
The middle of the Jays' starting roster suffered some similar missteps before Eric Levenseller earned a decision at 165. The Jays took one more loss at 174 before earning three straight decisions to close out the meet. Freshman Hector Cintron continued his strong debut season at 184 before giving way to seniors Tyler Schmidt and Matt Rugani at 197 and heavyweight respectively. But while the string of victories meant that both teams won five of the 10 matches, Ursinus took the victory on point differential 21-15.
Next, the Jays matched up against Muhlenberg. Unlike their start against Ursinus, the vivified Jays lineup came out firing against the Mules. After freshman Adams Stevens won by major decision at 125, Mike Testa upset Muhlenberg's Billy Hall at 133. Hall, a former Conference Champion at 133 and runner-up twice at both 133 and 141, couldn't intimidate Testa and the freshman toppled the senior by a score of 13-7.
Rocky Barilla and Eric Levenseller took two more individual victories at 141 and 165, but major decisions and technical falls in the weight classes between the two allowed the Mules to catch back up. Tyler Schmidt also won his second match of the day, but a pin for Muhlenberg in the heavyweight match gave the Mules the six points they needed to overtake the Jays and win the meet by a score of 22-18. Once again, the Jays split the matches, five and five, but still lost due to the extra points earned through pins and major decisions.
With two losses behind them, the crowd could feel the frustration building up in the Hopkins wrestlers. Unfortunately for Gettysburg, they still had to wrestle them. The two teams traded decisions at 125 and 133, but then the Jays took six of the next eight matches to win the meet 34-16, highlighted by pins from Barilla, Cintron and Schmidt.
At the end of the day, the Jays went 1-2, but despite the losses, they still remained happy with the strides that the team has made since the season opened back in November. After going 3-0 on the day, Rocky Barilla still believes that they Jays are in line to shock the conference.
"I think if we continue to stay aggressive and push the pressure in our matches, our team will have an excellent shot at the Conference title," Barilla said. "As for the dual meet season, we need to be able to get bonus team points out of major decisions and pins."
Barilla, 3-0 on the day, currently leads the team with a 23-10 record and has won his last nine straight matches.
Along with him, Tyler Schmidt and Eric Levenseller were also 3-0. "We showed that we are tough enough to beat any three of those teams," Levenseller said. "While we didn't score the points we needed to, we will get there. As a team, I thought we really opened up on Saturday. We came out aggressive and dictated the pace of the match."
This Saturday the Jays will return to Virginia to take on Washington & Lee, where the team placed third at the W&L Invitational a week ago. Unfortunately for the Generals, they will be facing a much more confident Hopkins team ready to make their run at the conference crown.
