Photo courtesy of Rose Fernandes/Maryland Athletics
Maryland (8-10, 3-5 Big Ten) ended their Big Ten campaign with a loss against Purdue, giving up a 14-23 defeat to the Boilermakers.
Maryland once again struggled to mitigate bonus points, giving up two technical falls and a major decision. The Terps, meanwhile, were only able to secure bonus points with Jaxon Smith’s 21-6 victory over Orlando Cruz.
One of the technical falls the Terps gave up came from senior Kevin Schork, who stepped in for No. 6 Ethen Miller against No. 7 Joey Blaze.
Miller defeated Blaze at the Tiger Style Invitational in November by a score of 11-9. Had Blaze defeated Miller in the dual meet, he would have been seeded over Miller in the upcoming conference championships. Against Schork, Blaze secured a 21-6 technical fall in the final minute of the second period.
Chase Mielnik was benched for the first time since last season, giving way to freshman Jack Darrah. Mielnik has lost five of his last seven bouts by technical fall. He is 10-14 on the year, despite being the team leader in fall victories. Darrah, whose first bouts of the season were at the Edinboro tournament on Feb. 1, gave up a 10-1 major decision to No. 27 Ben Vanadia.
Jaxon Smith got his first technical fall victory since November against Orlando Cruz, securing a 21-6 victory in the final seconds of the second period. No. 11 Smith’s previous four bouts were all against wrestlers ranked in the top 20 in the country, splitting the results with two wins and two losses. Against the unranked Cruz, Smith played catch-and-release and secured seven unanswered takedowns.
Despite the loss, Maryland will still end the season with three wins in the Big Ten, the most in program history and as many as the previous four seasons of coach Clemsen’s career combined. Incidentally, Clemsen’s first-ever Big Ten victory as the Terps’ skipper was against Purdue.
Maryland will have one final dual meet this season, going to Philadelphia on Feb. 12 to take on Drexel University, before going to the Big Ten Championships and the NCAA Championships.
