Despite winning four of the eight contested matches, AU Wrestling fell to George Mason on Monday night, 30-15. Once again, forfeits in the 157-lb. and 174-lb. weight classes cost the Eagles valuable points.
Leading the Eagles was senior Matt Pelligrino, who defeated Ed Tan by technical fall, winning 17-2 on points. Pelligrino, who was wrestling with a torn muscle in his hip flexor, came out strong, scoring four points for a takedown-nearfall combination early in the first period. He also scored 3-point nearfalls in every period.
"I stayed aggressive for the entire match," Pelligrino said. "I had to go out there and wrestle hard the whole way through."
Freshman Dwayne Hash-Barberis scored a key victory for the Eagles in the 165-lb. class, defeating Sean Early by a 7-4 decision. After a scoreless first period, Hash-Barberis took control with a takedown one minute into the second period. He made another key takedown with just under a minute remaining.
A mechanical malfunction plagued the end of the match, as the clock did not begin counting down when the match resumed after a stalemate at 22 seconds. Early scored an escape to pull within two points when the error was discovered and the match was stopped after about 10 seconds. The clock was then set for 12 seconds and play resumed. Hash-Barberis quickly scored an escape to put the match away before Early had a chance to try and capitalize on the malfunction.
After the match, Pelligrino was pleased with Hash-Barberis' performance.
"Hash came out there and took it to his opponent," he said. "That's how we've all got to wrestle from here on out."
"Coach kept telling me to go forward, and use my attack," Hash-Barberis said of his match. "I kept pushing him to wrestle me, and I forced him to make a bad shot and took advantage."
Graduate student Daniel Waters garnered his sixth consecutive victory, defeating Nick Webster, 11-2. Waters came out strong at the start, hitting a takedown 23 seconds into the match and scoring a three-point nearfall later in the first period. Waters also finished impressively, scoring a takedown with 10 seconds remaining in the match to cement his strong technical decision.
"I think I wrestled well," Waters said. "I'm sure [George Mason] scouted me out, and I think they were telling him to go out there and don't get pinned. He was just backing up and holding onto my wrists, so it was hard for me to do anything."
Rounding out the victories for AU was senior Jared Hyman, who won his heavyweight bout with Ryan Kittrick by a 6-3 decision. Despite his victory, Hyman did not wrestle aggressively, instead banking his points on capitalizing on his opponent's aggression.
"I thought a bit too much out there," Hyman said. "I went out there with a good plan, but I started to get tired, and I thought too much about it."
The meet was the team's fourth in four days. The weekend matches were highlighted by Hyman's 10-second pinfall victory against Gardner Webb University, a school record for fastest win.
Head coach Mark Cody was pleased with his team's effort level.
"I thought they wrestled very hard," he said.
The Eagles have one more dual meet this weekend, and then have two weeks off before the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA) tournaments.
Cody said his plan was to practice hard this week for the last dual meet, and practice hard the week right after that before slowing down and resting his wrestlers in the last week before the tournaments.
"I really feel like we have some individuals who can do very well in the tournaments," Cody said.
