Entering Saturday night's meet, both the Buffalo Bulls wrestling team and Binghamton looked to secure a victory to finish their seasons with .500 records. But only one team would be able to accomplish this.
Most notably however, was the outstanding individual achievement of Buffalo's (8-7) senior 133-pounder Mark Budd as he recorded his 100th all-time career victory with his dominating 20-5 win over the Bearcat's (10-10) Rob Slavin - in addition to the individual honor, it also turned out to be the decisive bout in the Bulls 22-18 win.
"One hundred matches in college Division I is one of the most difficult things to do," said head coach of Buffalo wrestling Jim Beichner, "And by doing so it gave us extra bonus points to make it easier for Andrew Stella to win. "(The) 141 (pound match) was the last match that we had to absolutely win. We were up by seven at that point and Stella secured the team win."
Beichner was happy with the team's performance, as the team fought to finish above .500 on the season.
"Overall we finished winning, we clinched a winning season for our team which was nice because we had a lot injuries and illness," Beichner said. "We were 7-7 going into the dual and before the match I told the guys that it was in their hands."
The Bulls took their head coach's encouragement winning six out of 10 matches, improving their record to 8-7.
The Bulls' only decision defeats were close ones as freshman 125-pounder Dan Bishop suffered a 3-1 loss to Binghamton's Mike Kleeman and Jason Hilliard lost the 149 pound bout to Kyle Fried with a score of 2-1.
Buffalo's other two losses were due to pin-falls as Buffalo's 157-pound sophomore Scott Rendos lost to Nate Patterson of Binghamton, and the Bearcat's Ed Backus defeated senior 197-pounder Jake Blowers.
In their last wrestling meet versus Kent State, junior Mike Ragusa broke a five bout losing streak, which he continued to turn into a two-bout winning streak with his 16-7 victory against Binghamton's Sam Sirota.
The 174-pound bout was a nail biter, as junior Nate Rock held on for a 7-6 decision against the Bearcat's Josh Patterson.
"(The 174 pound bout) was a big swing match for us," Beichner said. "He took him down three times with about 10 seconds left. It was the biggest match of the evening. It was a good win for Nate and it was good timing as well."
Bulls senior 184-pounder Ray Lamb was back with a vengeance in Binghamton. Lamb, coming off a last second defeat in his last bout, bested Binghamton's Corey Waite with a decisive 16-3 victory.
Another inspiring highlight of the meet was junior heavyweight Jeff Parker's inspirational return to the mat. Parker was out for a portion of the season with a torn PCL and came back Saturday night with conviction, winning his heavyweight match versus Mike Patterson, 7-4.
"Parker went out and dominated after being off the mat," Beichner said. "It's tough when you get hurt, to stay out for weeks and come back and get a win."
Despite being riddled with injuries and illness the entire season, Buffalo managed to finish their regular season with a winning record. With the regular season at its conclusion, the Bulls look forward to the Mid-American Conference Championships coming up on March 3-4 and will be hosted in Buffalo's Alumni Arena. The teams will hit the mats at 11 a.m.
