Grapplers win five in a row over break

Boredom wasn't a burden that Buffalo's wrestling team had to bear over the winter break, as the Bulls stayed busy with nine meets in little more than a month of action. In this timeframe, Buffalo rattled off a five game win streak.

"The five wins we had in a row, three of them could have been hard fought matches but we wrestled extremely well and dominated some teams," said Buffalo head coach Jim Beichner. "They were decent teams. We out-conditioned them, outworked them and outwrestled them."

The Bulls (7-3, 0-1 Mid-American Conference) saw their string of victories begin at a home tri-meet when it hosted Clarion (7-5) and Davidson (2-3) on Jan. 4. Senior 133-pounder Mark Budd helped Buffalo beat Davidson, 33-6, by beating Chris Panfili by technical fall, 19-3. His contributions didn't end there though as his pinning of Tyler Leljedal boosted the Bulls to a 23-16 win over Clarion.

Budd wasn't the lone Buffalo wrestler to go 2-0 on that day. 184 pound senior Ray Lamb, freshman 197-pounder Ricky Scott and senior heavyweight Jeff Parker also finished the tri-meet at Alumni Arena with a pair of victories.

Success traveled with the Bulls as they went to North Carolina the following week. Buffalo took part in another tri-meet at Appalachian State (4-10) in Boone, N.C. where they took down the host school, 25-16 as well as Gardner Webb (3-9-1), 42-3.

Once again, the nationally 12th-ranked Budd showed his dominance as he recorded pins against both his opponents at the Jan. 9 tri-meet. Also in the process, Budd became only the seventh wrestler in school history to win 90 matches.

"(Budd's) our best guy, our hardest worker, and has the most intense discipline," Beichner said. "I think he's on track to be a national qualifier."

Lamb also had another strong showing with a 3-2 win over Gardner-Webb's Brandon Beach and beating Appalachian State's Dan Carrasco, 9-1. Senior 165-pounder Mike Ragusa also won two matches on the day including a 9-7 overtime victory over ASU's Tommy Hutchinson.

The next day the Bulls traveled to face UNC-Greensboro (3-1) where they beat the Spartans, 22-14. The dual-meet was highlighted by two technical falls made by Buffalo grapplers. Budd recorded a tech fall on Mitchell Johnson, 20-4, and then two matches later freshman 149-pounder Jason Hilliard shutout Marcus Hannah, 18-0.

But the Bulls' winning ways wouldn't make its way back home as they dropped their MAC opening dual meet to the Northern Illinois Huskies (1-2, 1-0 MAC) on Jan. 14, 30-6. The Huskies brought in four nationally ranked grapplers who all came away with victories.

"Where they were better than us, they were a lot better than us and where they weren't it was just dead even," Beichner said. "They did enough to win those matches we could've won."

Budd and Parker were the only two wrestlers to come away with wins for Buffalo, both winning in overtime. Chad Vandiver took Budd to overtime after wrestling to a 1-1 tie in regulation before Budd recorded three near-fall points to take the match, 4-1. Parker's match with Dave Benner went into two overtime periods en route to his 17th victory of the season which ties his season-best.

Buffalo also suffered a loss in its second dual-meet of the season, as it fell to the No. 12 nationally-ranked Edinboro Fighting Scots, 31-6. Edinboro (12-1) brought six nationally ranked wrestlers to Alumni Arena on Dec. 9 with five of them coming away victorious. The only nationally-ranked Fighting Scot to lose was the then No. 16 ranked Rick Deubel who fell to Budd, 4-1. The only other Buffalo grappler to win was freshman 141-pounder Andrew Stella, who beat Daryl Cocozzo, 4-3.

The Bulls then split a pair of matches at Bloomsburg on Dec. 17 where they beat Delaware State, 43-9, and then lost to the host squad, 23-13. Junior 174-pounder Nate Rock as well as Budd, Stella and Scott went 2-0 for Buffalo at the tri-meet. Budd defeated Wrestling Report's No. 25-ranked Ricky Donald, 5-2. This completed a string seven consecutive matches that Budd had against nationally-ranked opponents.

Buffalo will next host the New York Intercollegiate Wrestling Championships from Jan. 19-20. The event will include 16 college teams from throughout the Empire State as well four state-ranked high school teams. The teams will hit the mat starting at 11 a.m. on Friday.