Senior Night at Alumni Arena for the wrestling team was anything but dull for the crowd that came out to support a big Bulls win. The Bulls made a great come back to defeat Binghamton, 20-16. The Bulls were behind 16-9 with three matches remaining. Buffalo won each of the final three matches to come away with a stunning come-from-behind victory. The victory gave Buffalo a final dual meet record of 9-7-1.
"I was proud of our guys. Our team captains went out there and did an awesome job today," said Buffalo coach Jim Beichner. "We had some injuries and were forced to move some guys up in weight. We don't ever really want to have our guys wrestle up, but they said no problem and I am proud of them."
Binghamton's Tyler Malmberg started off with a win for his squad with a 6-2 victory at 125 pounds. Sophomore Dan Bishop notched a takedown of Malmberg in the first period. But Malmberg answered back with the next six points of the match, giving Binghamton the early 3-0 lead.
Buffalo junior Joe Wilson tied the meet earning a victory at 133 pounds when he scored a pinfall at 2:39. The fall gave the Bulls a 6-3 advantage over the Bearcats.
"Hats off to Joe Wilson for going out there and getting a first period fall. That was really the difference between us winning and losing," Beichner said.
Binghamton then scored a pair of one-point victories at 141 and 149 pounds. Anwar Goeres used a third period reversal to overtake sophomore Andrew Stella at 141 and Kyle Fried, the 18th-ranked wrestler in the nation at 149 pounds, was able to score the only escape during an overtime tiebreaker against senior Ryan Needle to earn a 2-1 decision.
Binghamton increased its lead over Buffalo when Nate Patterson won a decision victory with a score of 4-1 against senior Pat Lloyd (Montgomery, NY/Valley Central) at 157 pounds. This victory pushed the Binghamton advantage to 12-6.
"We knew there was going to be a lot of hard fought matches, a lot of one-point matches and we just wanted to win bigger," Beichner said.
In the 165-pound match up, senior John Cummings won an intense battle against Binghamton's Brett Nelson. Cummings scored the only point of the match on an escape in the third period, winning 1-0.
"We had to shuffle our 149-pounder and our 157-pounder up in weight due to an injury, but those guys stepped up and wrestled hard for us," Beichner said.
Josh Patterson scored a major decision victory over senior Mike Ragusa at 174 pounds to bring Binghamton's lead to 16-9, going in to the final three matches. Junior Mickey Moran countered with a major decision for Buffalo in the next match at 184 pounds. Moran scored six takedowns in his win over Anthony Esposito.
Freshman Jimmy Hamel then brought the score to an even 16-16 with a decision victory over Binghamton's Corey Waite in the 197 pound weight class. Hamel scored a late takedown in the third period to break a 1-1 tie and, with one riding time point added, earned a 4-1 win.
With the score tied, Buffalo's fifth-year senior co-captain Jeff Parker and Binghamton's Mike Patterson squared off to decide which team was going to be victorious at the end of the dual. Parker dominated Patterson early in the first round, scoring two takedowns in the first period to lead 4-1. Parker then scored on a reversal in the second period, which were the only points tallied for both wrestlers. Going in to the final two minutes, Parker was in control with a lead of 6-1. Another takedown and reversal, as well as riding time awarded Parker another point, which gave him an 11-3 victory and put UB in the lead with a 20-16 match win.
"This was a really hard-fought match and I am happy that we won today...I wish we could have won a little bigger for our guys," said Beichner.
Prior to the dual, Buffalo honored seniors John Cummings, Dana Gingerich, Pat Lloyd, Ryan Needle, Jeff Parker, Mike Ragusa and Scott Rendos, who were making their final appearance as seniors for Buffalo.
Up next for the Bulls are the Mid-American Conference Championships, hosted by Kent State University in Kent, Ohio. The two-day event will take place on Friday, March 7 and Saturday, March 8.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
