By Juan Herrera

The University of Maryland wrestling team held its Red vs. Black Wrestle-Offs on Thursday night, where the Terps’ black team defeated the red team 18-12.

Prior to the weight class wrestle-offs, the team held three exhibition matches featuring some of the its freshmen wrestlers.

In the first exhibition match, Danny Bertoni (black) cruised to a 5-1 win over Hunter Baxter (red). Next in the second bout, redshirt sophomore Idris White (black) narrowly defeated freshman Philip Spadafora (red) 8-6, in overtime. Then in the final exhibition match, freshman Shawn Mosca (black) dominated and picked up an early technical fall over freshman James Spadafora (red).

After the three exhibition matches, the black team had an 11-0 lead. Then at the 133-pound bout, Michael Doetsch (black) knocked-off redshirt senior Jhared Simmons (red) 6-0 to extend the black team’s lead to 14.

The red team was finally able to snap the scoreless streak in the 141-pound match. Redshirt junior Ryan Diehl (red) put on an impressive performance against Peter Tedesco (black), resulting in a 6-1 win.

“I feel like in the opening, I went out there, got my takedown, got another takedown and then just relaxed,” Diehl said. “I feel like I got to push the pace more and just keep scoring.”

Next in the 149-pound match, Adam Whitesell (red) held on to an early lead to beat freshman Garrett Burnham (black) 8-6. The red team continued to chip away at the black team’s lead after freshman Kyle Cochran (red) narrowly defeated redshirt sophomore Jahi Jones (black) 5-3.

“I went out there and I did my thing,” Cochran said. “I pretty much got my jitters out in my first match.”

With only two bouts left in the wrestle-off, the black team only held a 14-9 lead. Redshirt sophomore Brendan Burnham (red) later cruised to a 6-2 win over redshirt junior Patrick Gerish (black) to cut the black team’s lead to two points.

In the final bout of the night, Spencer Woods (black) stormed past Kyle Jasenski (red) 15-4 for the win. Wood’s major decision at the end sealed the 18-12 win for the black team.

“It’s always tough to wrestle the guys you wrestle everyday in the room,” head coach Kerry McCoy said. “I think they (the team) came out and did a good job, put on a good show for the fans and got to learn a few things about themselves.”

The Terps will begin their 2017-18 campaign against Rutgers on Nov. 4. The match will be part of a double-header at High Point Solutions Stadium and will take place right before the Maryland-Rutgers football game.