With the team score tied at 13, the crowd standing and cheering, and the tension building Kal Miller wrapped his arms around the leg of No. 33 Cayden Rooks. Miller was able to flip around and end up on top of Rooks completing the takedown and winning the bout amid the roar of the pavilion crowd.
“I thought Kal just did not look like a true freshman tonight. Which was great because the last couple of times out, he’s looked like a true freshman,” said head coach Alex Clemsen. “So hopefully, that’s something to build on for him as we get into some, you know, more, you know, Big Ten competition.”
The win put the Terps up by three with a chance to clinch victory in the next bout that featured Kal’s brother Ethen. No. 22 Ethen Miller couldn’t find the same success his brother had achieved.
Trailing No. 33 Graham Rooks going into the third period, Miller was able to earn an escape point that brought the bout to 3-2. Rooks was able to win the bout with a takedown late in the third period to win by decision.
This duel was the first conference duel of the season. The Terps came in confident after starting the season winning five straight and putting together a good showing at the Southern Scuffle, where three Terps medaled.
Hoping to earn their first victory against a Big Ten opponent since 2016, the Terps looked to No. 33 Michael North to start the duel off with win.
North faced off against Indiana’s No. 20 Derek Gilcher. Gilcher held complete control of the bout only allowing three escape points to North. Gilcher won the bout 7-3 giving the Hoosiers a 3-0 lead on the team score.
John Martin Best was able to even the score in his bout against Tyler Lillard. The two battled it out through three periods, ending the third tied 2-2. Over a minute went by in overtime before Best gained control and executed an attack that pushed Lillard back toward the mat side seats, scoring the winning takedown.
The next two bouts did not go well for the Terps. Dominic Solis lost his bout to No. 18 DJ Washington and Chase Mielnik followed that up with a decision defeat.
No. 11 Jaxon Smith put an end to the losses with a 5-3 decision victory over Nick Wilham. The decision chipped away at the Hoosier lead sending the teams into intermission with the team score at 9-6, in favor of Indiana.
The Terps came out firing after intermission with back-to-back victories to regain the team score lead. No. 32 Jaron Smith earned a 3-2 decision victory, earning the victory with a takedown in the third. A bout in which Clemsen said Smith seemed settled.
“He really did a good job of controlling the center. He did a good job of not getting pushed out. He did a good job of not extending himself on takedown attempts. He looked more like a heavyweight tonight,” said Clemsen.
No. 26 Braxton Brown followed that up with a major decision victory over Jacob Moran. Moran was unable to earn a point in the bout as Brown held control the entire way.
Brown’s victory gave Maryland a 13-9 lead in the team score entering the final three bouts of the night.
The 133 ended the same way, except Maryland experienced the other side. Conner Quinn could not gain any momentum in the bout losing by major decision to No. 32 Henry Porter evening the team score at 13, which led to the two bouts from the Miller brothers.
With Graham Rooks’ win over Ethen Miller, the team scores sat deadlocked at 16. The win was awarded to Indiana on account of the total match points tallied throughout the duel. The final score stood at 17-16.
Despite the Terps putting together some key decision victories the Terps couldn’t put it all together, not executing in some of the finer details says Jaron Smith.
“We got to find a way to turn them, turn the turn the juice up and score more points, uniformly getting decisions, or find a way to turn those decisions into majors or find a way to fight off their majors and make those just decisions,” said Smith. “If we’re in close matches, it’s just a matter of cleaning up on the edges, fixing the margins.”
The Terps will head to Virginia to complete in the Virginia Duels on Friday. After that, Maryland will face its second Big Ten opponent of the season as No. 4 Ohio State comes to College Park.
