LINEUPS, BIOS, STATS AT BOTTOM
VIDEO RECAP HERE
MARYLAND TAKES LAST 4 BOUTS TO WIN 18-16
Saturday December 11th, 6pm at XFINITY Center in College Park, Maryland
PREVIEW PUBLISHED 12-8-2021 (final results at bottom)
The US Naval Academy Midshipmen will cross one line before competing at host Maryland Terrapins. Navy Head Coach and US Olympian Cary Kolat is familiar with this line drawn. He helped revive Maryland youth wrestling for several years before two college coaching stints in North Carolina. He's back and in his first year in Annapolis (2020-2021), was victorious against Army, the first since 2016 and the first in West Point since Kolat's mentor/US Olympic Coach Bruce Burnett lead Navy to defeat Army in 2013.
Like Kolat, University of Maryland Head Coach Alex Clemsen also wrestled for a small Division 1 college in Pennsylvania. Clemsen's coaching path however is much different, coming from Missouri before landing in College Park. He knows the Academy is less than 30 miles away, but the county line that separates the two schools is much more than just a territorial one. In 2019, Clemsen's first year as the Terps Head Coach, he took a 12-21 stinging loss in Annapolis. Saturday night Clemsen looks to gain bragging rights in Maryland when they meet Navy again, this time over the Anne Arundel County line, at home in Prince George's County.
Maryland brings back 3 Terps who wrestled in that loss, including Maryland Native Jaron Smith (Oakland Mills HS) who could potentially help decide the end result of the dual. He is slated to meet Jacob Koser again at 197lbs. Smith beat Koser 12-10 that night three years ago, but lost to Koser just a month ago 4-3.
King Sandoval (Saint Mary's Ryken HS) and Kyle Cochran both lost against Navy in that dual three years ago, but would be hard pressed not to say Clemsen will rely on them to lead the young Terp squad, especially if they want to gain Maryland bragging rights over Navy.
Kolat sharpens his team to put the pressure on their opponents, a critical skill to win those decisive tight bouts, but to keep scoring and gain momentum. The Midshipmen are coming off a strong performance at the Cliff Keen Invitational in Vegas and their athletes come into this dual with nearly 10 more bouts than the Maryland athletes. That type of battle tested pressure and momentum might be all that's needed to gain valuable bonus points in several key bouts, put this dual out of reach, and keep bragging rights in Annapolis, Maryland's capital and home to the Navy Midshipmen.
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FINAL RESULTS
VIDEO RECAP HERE
Away Team Navy listed first-Home Team Maryland listed second
(win/loss record noted-click on it for all stats)
125lbs
Jacob Allen qualified for NCAA's last year, but at 133lbs. He looks extremely strong at 125 and put Spence away quickly with a tech fall. Kolat will have Allen ready for March.
5-0 NAVY actual
4-0 NAVY predicted
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133lbs
My athlete King Sandoval gave Koderhandt (ranked top 30) everything he had including a nice hip toss but wasn't able to capitalize. Of course I predicted King to win but he keeps getting better in the B1G Ten despite the losses.
8-0 NAVY actual
4-3 NAVY predicted
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141lbs
Maryland native and 4x state champ Danny Bertoni held on to an impressive late charging Miranda (fill in for Hunt). Danny looked tired but got it done. Great to see his development since he was training with me over 10 years ago and obviously took him to win this one.
8-3 NAVY actual
4-6 MARYLAND predicted
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149lbs
Michael North looked strong over PJ Crane in a tight 3-2 victory. Wasn't' anticipating a Navy loss here, but the actual team score versus my predicted team score to this point was pretty accurate.
8-6 NAVY actual
9-6 NAVY predicted
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157lbs
Very impressed by Cerniglia's (ranked top 20) skill, but he faded and Cordio took full advantage reducing a near tech fall to a major decision. Was anticipating Cerniglia to put Cordio away by fall and you could see the effort, which I think also exhausted him.
12-6 NAVY actual
15-6 NAVY predicted
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165lbs
Val Park looked impressive and secured a major decision over Gavin Bell who was filling in for the season ending injured John Martin Best. Park lost to Evan Wick last week 4-2 at the Cliff Keen Invitational, so look for him to continue trending upward.
16-6 NAVY actual
15-9 NAVY predicted
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174lbs
This was the pivotal bout in the dual and the Terps never looked back (or lost again). I thought the officiating was at an all time worst, even though it was quite bad throughout the entire dual, but questionable stall call point to send bout to overtime, wrong points thrown up by official caused confusion. It went overtime and Solis secured a takedown to take it. Kolat and Clemsen got into a verbal shouting match in this bout and it continued after the dual... (see final thoughts at bottom).
16-9 NAVY actual
18-9 NAVY predicted
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184lbs
David Key 10-5 vs. Kyle Cochran 8-1
Cochran is impressive, and the fact he is up 2 weight classes from last year highlights how well his skills serve him. Key (ranked top 20) looked to match intensity early but it slowed and Cochran took the decision.
16-12 actual
18-12 predicted
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197lbs
This is the bout I thought could decide the dual for Navy and although I predicted Jaron to win it (which he did), a few other things in the dual needed to happen should Koser (ranked top 25) actually lose. Jaron looked near the best I've seen him and having Cochran and Solis to push him doesn't hurt as their styles are all very similar, explosive, dynamic, and exciting!
16-15 NAVY actual
18-15 NAVY predicted
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285lbs
As all great duals end with heavyweights, so did the team score in which Schrader took the second overtime victory for Maryland. Riley Smith (ranked top 25) wrestled well and pushed the pace (no stall calls) but could tell Schrader looked to keep it close to pick his spot when Smith made a mistake.
16-18 MARYLAND actual
???? predicted (did not chose a winner but score going into this bout was pretty close to what I anticipated)
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FINAL THOUGHTS...
Both teams wrestled well and Maryland defended their turf as best they could. Officiating as usually was at an all time low, but that's why athletes need to wrestle as if they're always losing. Kolat will have his guys ready for Midlands in a couple weeks and Maryland continues their dual schedule with Penn State.
NAVY-Allen, Koderhandt, Miranda, Crane, Cerniglia, Park all wrestled well and took 4 of the 6 bouts. When things got harder for Navy at the upper weights, it seemed they were flat and unable to respond, despite still wrestling pretty well.
MARYLAND-Solis, Cochran, Smith, Schrader is a solid finishing 4 and took out Navy's 3 guys ranked inside the top 25. Impressed at the performance but will need to see if this level can be sustained, especially considering March is still 3 months away.
At the conclusion of the dual, Kolat and Clemsen continued their confrontation, but this time face to face with no intervention. It seemed it stemmed from the Finney Solis bout with terrible officiating. They shook hands before joining their teams.
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