By Juan Herrera
The Maryland Terrapins wrestling team opens their first dual meet of the season on Sunday when they take on Lock Haven University and the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.
A few days before the two matches this weekend, Maryland head coach Kerry McCoy said he would have his teamwork on improving their performance at practice. After working on this for a while, McCoy said he would shift the focus to Lock Haven and Virginia.
It is also Lock Haven’s first dual meet of the season. The Bald Eagles finished last season with a (9-9) dual meet record. Lock Haven’s Ronnie Perry is ranked No. 20 at the 141-pound weight class on InterMat’s NCAA Division I Rankings.
On the other end, Virginia heads into the two matches having already lost to No. 11 Michigan and No. 14 Central Michigan. Although, they are 0-2 so far, the Cavaliers have two ranked wrestlers including No. 10 George DiCamillo at 141-pounds and No. 20 Andrew Atkinson at 157-pounds. Freshman Jack Mueller is also 6-0 this season at the 125-pound weight class.
“[UVA] had some pretty good success,” coach McCoy said. “They were ACC champs a bunch of times and they have some good individuals, so we don’t want to be flat against them, but we got to focus on ourselves getting better and then we’ll do a little scouting to prepare for them.”
While Maryland is set to take 15 wrestlers to Charlottesville this weekend, several other Terps will be competing at the Wolfpack Open Sunday at NC State. A majority of the wrestlers competing at this tournament will be freshman and redshirt freshman.
So far, Coach McCoy said he is content with how well the younger wrestlers are performing on his team.
“Even though some of these guys are young, they’ve been able to elevate to the position of seasoned veterans,” coach McCoy said.” They still have to work a little on some adjustments here and there, but I’m really pleased with the progress they are making.”
With two matches coming up, McCoy said he wants to have his wrestlers shift or split matches, depending on the competition. His goal is to get a bunch of guys out there this weekend.
Two of Maryland’s wrestlers competing this weekend are nationally ranked. Tyler Goodwin is ranked No. 12 in the 133-pound weight class, while Alfred Bannister is ranked No. 17 in the 149-pound weight class.
Although Goodwin is ranked, the redshirt junior said he doesn’t feel pressured. He was used to being an underdog, but now that he’s the guy that’s supposed to win, he finds it exciting Goodwin said.
The redshirt junior said he uses this motivation to practice as hard as he could and goes into each match with a winning mindset. He is confident about the two matches this weekend.
“I’d like to get bonus points in both our matches for the dual,” Goodwin said. “I’d like to get a pin or a tech for the team in both of them.”
The Terps will wrestle Lock Haven at 11:00 a.m. and then Virginia at 3:00 p.m. on Sunday November 20 at the Memorial Gymnasium in Charlottesville, Virginia.
