The Terps came into this dual riding a wave of excitement and confidence. The team beat Purdue on Friday earning their first Big Ten win since 2016.
The team hoped to take that energy into their final Big Ten dual of the regular season against No. 1 ranked Penn State. The Nittany Lions sported a record of 14-0, 7-0 in Big Ten play. Penn State also has two wrestlers ranked first in their weight class, Carter Starocci and Roman Bravo-Young.
No. 15 Braxton Brown got the Terps on the board to start the dual. Brown earned a 1-0 decision victory over Gary Steen. The only point in the bout came from a Brown escape in the third period.
No. 1 Roman Bravo-Young dominated the 133 bout, earning a technical fall victory over King Sandoval. Bravo-Young had 14 takedowns in the bout.
Kal Miller could only muster two escape points in the next bout. No. 6 Beau Bartlett scored two takedowns and secured the riding time point to win the bout, 5-2.
Following his brother’s bout, No. 18 Ethen Miller and No. 13 Shayne Van Ness wrestled in a top 20 contest. Van Ness owned the third period of the bout scoring 10 points to secure Penn State’s second technical fall victory of the dual.
The 157 bout ended in the first period. No. 8 Levi Haines pinned Kevin Schork with a little over a minute left in the first period to put six team points on the board.
Going into intermission the Terps trailed Penn State 19-3. Coming out of intermission nothing improved for Maryland.
No. 9 Alex Facundo took a 15-5 lead into the third period in his bout against Lucas Cordio. Cordio and Facundo wrestled to the mat and there Facundo was able to twist Cordio to his back. Facundo earned his first collegiate pin and increased the Maryland deficit to 22.
Dom Solis couldn’t turn the momentum in his bout against No. 1 Carter Starocci. Starocci had six takedowns and added in an escape and riding time, beating Solis by major decision, 14-6.
Kevin Makosy lost the 184 bout to Donovan Ball by decision. Ball had two takedowns in the first and second periods.
The Terps forfeited the 197 bout, bringing up the last bout between Jordan Gabriel and Seth Nevills.
Nevills ended the heavyweight bout in the first period pinning Gabriel with just under a minute left to go in the first period.
Maryland lost the dual 44-3, the only points coming from Brown’s victory over Steen. The Terps end Big Ten play with a conference record of 1-7. Their overall record sits at 9-8.
Maryland has two more duals left on the schedule before the Big Ten Championships start in March. The first of those duals will be on Friday as they take on Binghamton in College Park.
