RALEIGH, N.C. Heavyweight Ryan Hsu took a 5-2 decision
over Bobby Isola in the final match of the evening to clinch a 23-17 dual-match
victory over NC State in college wrestling action at Reynolds Coliseum.
The Wolfpack lost its third match in a row and fell to
8-10-1 for the season. The Spartans improved to 9-7.
The match got off to a poor start for the Wolfpack when
125-pounder Taylor Cummings wound up getting pinned by Mitchell Johnson from a
neutral position with three seconds remaining in the first period. No. 16 Jeff
Hedges made it 9-0 UNCG with a 6-4 decision over NC State’s Darius Little in
the 133-pound match.
Joe Caramanica, ranked No. 5 nationally at 141, got NC State
on the board with a 17-2 technical fall as time expired in the final period.
Caramanica won for the 71st time in his career, which ranks 20th in school
history. With the Wolfpack in the scoring column, Darrion Caldwell gave the
Wolfpack the lead at 11-9 when he pinned Marcus Hannah at 1:43 at 149 pounds.
The pin was Caldwell’s eighteenth of the season, which tied him with Jayson
Ness of Minnesota for the national lead in falls. Caldwell now is tied for
fourth in school history with 28 career pins.
At 157, NC State’s Colton Palmer got a pair of takedowns in
the first period, then salted the match away with a takedown in the third to
defeat Mark Ring 7-4, and Jalil Dozier scored eight takedowns against Byron
Sigmon at 165 and went on to record a 17-10 decision, extending the Wolfpack’s
lead to 17-9.
UNC Greensboro snapped the Wolfpack’s momentum at 174. Mikal
McKee scored a late takedown in the first period and got a three-point near
fall to take a 5-0, then scored two more takedowns in the final period to win a
12-3 major decision and cut NC State’s lead to four points at 17-13. Jeremy
Cannon’s 10-1 major decision over Dane Coffee at 184 tied the score at 17-17
with two matches remaining.
The first of those was at 197, where UNCG’s Daren Burns is
ranked No. 13 nationally. The Wolfpack’s Mark Jahad made it a match, but Burns
scored the only point of the match with an escape to start the third period and
won a 1-0 decision. The win was the 100th of Burns’s career, making him the first
wrestler in UNCG history to win 100 matches in a career.
With UNCG leading 20-17, the match came down to the
heavyweight bout between NC State’s Bobby Isola and UNCG’s Ryan Hsu, and Hsu
used an escape and subsequent takedown in the final period to record a 5-2
decision and give the Spartans a 23-17 victory.
NC State will return to action on Friday for its
regular-season finale against ACC opponent Virginia Tech. The match, which will
begin at 7:30 p.m., will be held at Reynolds Coliseum.
UNC Greensboro 23, NC State 17
125 Mitchell Johnson (UNCG) pinned Taylor Cummings, at
2:57
133 #16 Jeff Hedges (UNCG) dec. Darius Little, 6-4
141 #5 Joe Caramanica (NCS) tech fall Ben Wilmore, 17-2,
at 7:00
149 #9 Darrion Caldwell (NCS) pinned Marcus Hannah, at
1:43
157 Colton Palmer (NCS) dec. Mark Ring, 7-4
165 Jalil Dozier (NCS) dec. Byron Sigmon, 17-10
174 Mikal McKee (UNCG) major dec. Ray Ward, 12-3
184 Jeremy Cannon (UNCG) major dec. Dane Coffee, 10-1
197 #13 Daren Burns (UNCG) dec. Mark Jahad, 1-0
Hwt Ryan Hsu (UNCG) dec. Bobby Isola, 5-2
Courtesy: NC State
