Sophomore Mark Budd upped his winning streak to six on Saturday as he tallied two Mid-American Conference wins, continuing his already solid season for the Bulls.
Unfortunately, Budd's efforts weren't enough to pick up a team win for the Bulls (1-10 overall, 0-4 MAC) as they dropped two conference matches in the Great Lakes State.
The Bulls' Saturday road trip started at noon against Eastern Michigan, where they lost a heartbreaker by a score of 20-19, and ended with an evening match at Central Michigan where they were soundly beaten, 30-9.
Much like the Bulls' loss to Ohio University the weekend before, Saturday's match against Eastern Michigan came down to the last bout of the day. The Bulls were leading the Eagles 19-14 when sophomore Pat Lloyd faced off against 16th-ranked Jermaine Thompson at 149 pounds.
Although Lloyd was able to avoid a pin against the nationally ranked wrestler, his 14-4 major decision defeat gave the Eagles the six team points they needed for the win.
"I think our guys were prepared and I think many of them wrestled very well. I'm not sure we wrestled to our potential as a team and in some ways we haven't all year," said Bulls' head coach Jim Beichner. "It's important to know that it's never one person's responsibility to win or lose a match. We have 10 guys out there and we had eight or nine different ways to score extra points for us and we failed to do that, so the burden goes to the whole team. Lloyd just happened to be the last guy out there."
The Bulls started out sluggish against the desperate Eagles, who were looking to avoid their 39th straight conference loss, when they dropped their first four matches. After losing bouts in weight classes 157 through 184, Junior Harold Sherrell put the Bulls on the board with a 7-4 victory at 197 pounds over Tony Lyssiotis.
After a close loss in the heavyweight match, Buffalo went on a three-match tear sparked by 19th-ranked sophomore Mark McKnight. Following McKnight's quick disposal of Michael Weck with a pin at 125 pounds, sophomore Mark Budd defeated Philip Plowman 8-5 at 133 pounds and then sophomore Dana Gingerich defeated Nick Conklin 13-10 at 141 pounds. Gingerich's win gave the Bulls their short-lived 19-14 lead before going into Lloyd's match at 149 pounds.
"Budd has been wrestling very well. He's turning into one of our team leaders. He's not real outspoken but he's hard working, he's a good student, he does all the right things and it's starting to pay off for him," said coach Beichner. "He's a young guy so we have two years and whatever's left of this year left with Mark Budd."
After being edged out by EMU, the Bulls then traveled to Central Michigan for an evening match, where they won only two of 10 bouts.
"It was just a fact that we got beat by a better team. You can say anything you want. Every guy on their team is ranked in the top 15 in the country and it showed," said coach Beichner. "They were more experienced, they were older they were definitely one of the best teams I've wrestled against as a coach and I've been here ten years."
The Bulls' two wins against Central came from sophomore Mark Budd and junior Garrett Hicks. Budd collected a forfeit at 133 pounds, while Hicks upset a nationally ranked wrestler, Alex Lammers, at 184 pounds. Hicks, ranked fourth in the Mid-American Conference in preseason polls, beat the 16th-ranked Lammers by a score of 7-2.
Although the Bulls have had a rough season when it comes to the win column, Coach Beichner has by no means given up on this young, highly skilled wrestling team.
"By no means are these guys losers," said Beichner. "They put more time and effort than anyone can imagine. They are dedicated they're loyal and sometimes you have to reach bottom in order to climb back up and that was the case this year."
With their coach behind them, the Bulls will now turn their attention to a tough Kent State team where they hope to build momentum for the MAC tournament. The Bulls will host Kent State on Friday at 7 p.m. in Alumni Arena.
Photo: Courtesy of SUNY
