Over the weekend, the Boston University wrestling team showed Terrier Nation why it’s the real team to watch at BU, winning its 11th straight dual meet on Saturday.
The Terriers (14-2, 7-1 Colonial Athletic Association) swept their tri-meet at Wagner College, first pummeling the host school and conference foe, 40-6, and then slipping by Delaware Valley College, 18-15.
In the first contest of the day, BU dominated the mat against the Seahawks (1-14, 0-8), winning all but two matches.
Senior Leighton Brady continued his outstanding season, recording a decision via technical fall in the 165-pound weight class. Sophomore Justin Blumenthal (149 pounds) also recorded a decision by technical fall.
Sophomore Brett Scholnick (197 pounds) and junior Courtney Howard (285 pounds) each recorded a decision by way of pin-fall. Freshmen Brett Firmer (125 pounds) and Chris Coppolo (141 pounds) also added to the Terrier success, each earning major-decision victories.
“He just gets better and better each match,” BU coach Carl Adams, said of Frimer, who has won his last eight matches.
Despite rolling over the Seahawks in relatively easy fashion, the Terriers were without two of their top wrestlers in junior Joey Rivera and freshman John DaCruz. Rivera was given the week off to prepare for the team’s next big meet against Rider University, while DaCruz is recovering from a neck injury. Adams said DaCruz could have wrestled in Saturday’s meet, but as a precaution, he sat the 197-pounder to prevent further damage.
“With those two we would do much better,” Adams said.
Against Division III Delaware Valley (16-6), the Terriers endured a much tougher battle.
Following their success in the first meet, Brady and Frimer won their individual matches to pace BU.
Junior Rayes Gonzales (149 pounds) and sophomore Zach Johns (157 pounds) also added to the Terrier victory with wins.
The meet, however, came down to the last match with both schools tied at 15. Howard prevailed in his match, 3-2, to preserve the win streak.
“[Howard] gave everything he had to pull out that win,” Adams said.
BU and Delaware Valley actually won five matches each, but the Terriers accumulated more points throughout to emerge victorious. The Aggies also lost a point for misconduct.
“I was very pleased with the way they wrestled,” Adams said of his team. “With a couple of kids out, guys had to come through, and they did.”
“It was one of our closer matches, but we wrestled pretty well as a team,” said co-captain Ben Schillens.
Frimer also agreed that the Terriers “wrestled well as a team.”
The team’s 11-match winning streak is the longest current run among BU athletic teams, with the Terriers’ last loss coming at Hofstra University on Dec. 11. BU won nine straight last season before dropping its last five matches to finish the season in disappointing fashion.
“In this streak, there were four or five matches that could have gone either way,” Adams said. “We’re just in better shape, and we are better mentally.
“Team-wise, we have good balance and our guys are working very hard,” Adams added.
The team next faces conference-rival Rider (12-3, 6-0) on Friday Feb. 20 at Case Gym before finishing its regular season at Harvard University(1-10) on Saturday Feb. 21.