The AU wrestlers came in with a plan on how take on Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling rival Navy. However, they weren't able to execute and lost multiple close matches in falling to Navy, 23-13, Friday night at Bender Arena.
The loss to Navy was the Eagles' first conference loss of the year.
"We scouted Navy and we trained all week on how to beat them," said senior Tom Kniezewski, who was one of four AU wrestlers to win a match. "Unfortunately, in some matches we were able to execute and some other we weren't able to do so."
One of the strategies of AU coach Mark Cody was to move up senior Muzaffar Abdurakhmanov and freshman Rudy Rueda up from their usual weight classes. Rueda, who usually wrestles in the 157-pound class, wrestled in the 165-pound match. Abdurakhmanov, who is ranked No. 4 four in the 165-pound division, wrestled in the 174-pound match.
"We knew coming into the we were going to move Muzaffar up coming into the match," Cody said.
Rueda was unsuccessful in his match, where he was never able to generate any momentum before losing a 6-2 decision.
Abdurakhmanov was more successful in his move up, dominating the first period with four takedowns before slowing down in the last two periods.
Early on it appeared Abdurakhmanov was going to score a major decision, but he seemed to tire as the match went on. He walked away with a 10-7 decision.
AU won the first match of the night with a victory by Matt Morkel in the 125-pound match. He won by a 5-3 decision.
In the 133-pound match, Jordan Lipp lost a close match to Navy's Sean Knapp, falling in a 7-5 decision.
"Losing the 133 match was a really bad break," Cody said.
Things didn't get any better for AU when Jordan Zipkin was pinned in the 141-pound match. Navy then took a 9-3 lead and never gave it up.
Kniezewski, at 149 pounds, won his match with a 3-2 decision. A takedown late gave him the lead and the win.
AU could have tied the match with a win at 157 pounds. Christopher Stout wrestled a tough match with Navy's John Jarred, but it was Jarred who walked away with an 8-4 decision.
After the Abdurakhmanov and Rueda matches, Josh Glenn showed why he is ranked No. 1 among 184-pounders. He thoroughly dominated his opponent, Matt Parsons, never even giving him chance to get off the mat. Glenn scored a major decision and pulled AU within two points within Navy.
But AU fell back again as Tyler Flatt went down next by technical fall.
The final match was a battle of heavyweights - both figuratively and literally - as 10th-ranked Adam LoPiccolo took on Navy's sixth-ranked Tanner Garrett. LoPiccolo had pinned his last two ranked opponents. But against Garrett, he could not generate any momentum. He fell in a 10-3 decision.
Cody said conditioning was a factor in the outcome.
"When you're wrestling bigger guys, conditioning is a big factor," he said. "Their wrestlers have heavy hands, and they will grind you down. We fell into the trap of wrestling their type of match. We had plenty of opportunity to score and we didn't convert."
On Saturday, AU bounced back against Rutgers by winning, 29-12.
Flatt, Lipp, LoPiccolo, and Rueda recovered from their Friday losses quickly with victories. LoPiccolo was able to get his tenth pin of the year in just over a minute.
Glenn scored his second straight major decision in a 10-2 victory. Kniezewski, Morkel and Dwayne Hash-Barberis also had victories for AU.
AU record now stands at 10-6 and 4-1 in the EIWA. Its next match will be against East Stroudsburg Friday at Bender Arena. It will be its last home match of the year.
