Maryland wrestling (4-7) will wrestle in its final dual meet of the regular season against Drexel (7-9) Friday night.
The Terps return to College Park after a 27-12 loss to Rutgers in Piscataway, N.J. last Friday. The Dragons most recently saw their five-meet win streak come to an end against Franklin & Marshall, dropping the meet 22-16.
Maryland last faced Drexel in 2021, winning 21-19 at home.
Kal Miller is currently in a four-bout losing streak, his last defeat coming against No. 21 Mitch Moore at Rutgers. Prior to that meet coach Alex Clemsen expressed concern that Miller may have cut his weight too close before his loss against No. 29 Jordan Hamdan of Michigan State. Miller will likely face Jordan Soriano, whose five-bout win streak came to an end against Franklin & Marshall’s Pat Phillips.
When Michael North last wrestled against Drexel, he was 149 pounds. This time the 157-pound Terp will look to dispel a six-bout losing streak in his likely match against Tyler Williams, who has gone 3-2 in the month of February. North dropped out of the Intermat rankings after a 5-1 loss to No. 5 Michael Blockhus of Minnesota, his penultimate opponent in his six-bout gauntlet of ranked opponents.
In the last dual meet between the Terps and the Dragons, Mickey O’Malley pinned current Maryland captain Dom Solis. O’Malley has not wrestled this year, so Solis’ likely opponent will be Jack Janda, who this season has a ranked win and is 9-6 in dual meets. Solis is 3-5 in dual meets after a 1-0 defeat to No. 14 Jackson Turley of Rutgers. Janda is coming off of an extra period loss to Noah Fox of Franklin & Marshall, giving up a 4-1 decision.
The biggest upset of the night against Rutgers came in the heavyweight bout between Seth Nevills and No. 10 Yaraslau Slavikouski, during which Nevills never gave up a takedown. Despite dealing with a minor shoulder injury that has had him wearing an arm brace the past two meets, Nevills has strung together two dual meet victories for the first time this season and will look to add another against Santino Morina, who wrestles at both 197 and heavyweight. Morina is also looking to add to consecutive wins, which he has for the first time since early December.
Clemsen has a decision to make at 165 pounds for the final meet of the season. True freshman AJ Rodrigues has started in five of Maryland’s 11 dual meets in the weight class, but he cannot start against Drexel, lest he forgo his redshirt eligibility, leaving Clemsen with a choice between other redshirt freshman Ryan Money or veteran Terps wrestler Gaven Bell.
Bell has struggled not just in dual meets but during the entire season, last winning a bout in November of 2023. Money has no risk of forgoing redshirt eligibility, with just two starts under his belt, but Clemsen spoke out in the beginning of the season about his aversion to unnecessarily starting freshmen in dual meet roles.
Maryland is 4-1 this season against unranked teams, outscoring them 157-64. A win over Drexel would give the Terps their best dual meet record since joining the Big 10.
