Photo courtesy of Samantha Osborne/Maryland Terrapins
The Terrapins (5-5) snapped their losing streak Sunday at the Armbar at the Armory quad meet, but not before extending it to five matches.
Maryland dropped the first two matches of the day, first to Binghamton by a score of 10-28 and then to Columbia, 18-19. Against Lock Haven, Maryland put together a string of victories in the back of the lineup to secure a 27-12 victory.
Maryland looked poised to be 2-1 on the day with a victory against Columbia going into the 197-pound bout. Jaxon Smith had tied the match at 13 with a 7-5 decision victory over Columbia’s Nick Fine, setting up Chase Mielnik to fight Joe Curtis for the lead.
Just a little over a minute into the second period, Curtis put Mielnik on his back and secured the pin, putting heavyweight Seth Nevills in a position where he would have to pin Vincent Mueller just for the match to end in a 19-19 tie. Nevills landed multiple shots and get back points out of them, but the result was a technical fall and just one team point short of a tie.
Once again, Braxton Brown won all three bouts despite Maryland’s overall lack of success on the mat. In his bout against Binghamton’s Michael Roes, Brown secured a 1-0 victory by holding onto Roes for dear life for the entirety of the second period, denying Roes the escape point. Brown’s lone escape was the difference in the bout and was good for the lowest-scoring victory of his college career. He followed up that performance with an 11-7 victory over Columbia’s Boris Witmer and a 9-0 victory against No. 14 Anthony Noto of Lock Haven University.
Kal Miller reversed his Rider quad meet results and went 2-1 on the day. After giving up a 2-1 decision to Binghamton’s Ivan Garcia, Miller secured a 9-6 decision victory against Columbia’s Richard Fedalen and a 7-5 victory over Lock Haven’s Lucas Kapusta. Both victories came from takedowns hit in the final seconds of the third period, with Kapusta looking like the victor in his match until literally the final ten seconds. Both were ranked wins for Miller.
The starting freshmen in the lineup struggled until the final match. It took Alex Uryniak and Branson John until the Lock Haven match to secure victories, while Tyler Garvin went 0-3 on the day. Uryniak’s victory was his first in a collegiate team meet, taking a 6-3 decision over Lock Haven’s Caden Dobbins. John, meanwhile, stunned No. 29 Avery Bassett by pinning him in the second period.
The Terps will be on short rest from now until Jan. 17. They take on both Michigan and Michigan St. on the road in three days, after which they have just five days to prepare for Wisconsin in College Park. It is arguably the most difficult three-meet stretch in their schedule.
The Terps face off against the Wolverines on Jan. 10.
