Rutgers Wrestling rolls over Maryland in season debut
The No.12-ranked Rutgers wrestling team got off to a winning start today inside High Point Solutions Stadium with a 27-9 win over Big Ten foe Maryland. This was the second straight season Rutgers opened up its campaign outdoors, although there was a difference in how it began.
Sophomore Nick Suriano started things off with a dominant 24-7 win as there was a lot of excitement leading up to the RU debut of the Penn State transfer.
“It was a lot of points and we fed off it,” head coach Scott Goodale said of Suriano’s win. “… I think we have a really good one-two punch at 125 and 133. They are going to win a whole lot of matches. Two good starts and it got the crowd into it.”
The 133-pound victory came courtesy of Scott DelVecchio, who earned an 11-5 win. Rutgers would go on to win seven of the ten matches, although Suriano’s first as a Scarlet Knight was one of the more memorable ones.
“For me it was just another match honestly,” Suriano said. “It’s good to be back in New Jersey, my home, in front of my people and my family. It’s awesome, it felt great. But to me, it was just another match. I prepared for it.”
Another highlight of the day came when 184-pounder Nick Gravina separated his shoulder during a match, but popped it right back in and stayed on the mat.
He then overcame a 4-0 deficit in route to a 10-4 win.
“At first I was just worried about getting my shoulder back in,” Gravina said. “Once it gets in, it is a completely different feeling. Once I got it in, I was like ‘let’s go.’ I couldn't give up six [points] for our team. I think I could have beaten that guy with one arm, so it was totally fine.”
The win moves Rutgers to 1-0 on the season as it debuted some new faces in the starting lineup while one of the most notable absences was senior Anthony Ashnault.
On the day, Suriano, Gravina, DelVecchio, Eleazar DeLuca, Kevin Mulligan, Richie Lewis and John Van Brill all registered wins while Jordan Pagano, Michael Van Brill and Razohnn Gross were defeated.
“We wrestled really good in some spots and struggled in others,” Goodale said. “But it’s early. We’ll get there. We have some young kids who made some mistakes, but we’ll get there.”