Men's Wrestling | 12/16/2024 2:52:00 PM
Danville, VA - Junior heavyweight Greg Dennard went 5-0 on the day to lead the Big Blue men's wrestling team to three dual meet wins in a row at the Cougar Duals hosted by Averett University on Saturday. His performance was just one of several excellent individual showings by Bstate during the day.
In the first round, he opened with a technical fall over a much larger Belmont Abbey opponent. Dennard then scored a pair of falls against Southern Virginia University and Averett University in the next two duals. In his fourth match, Greg's riding skills were on display against Newport News Apprentice School, earning him a major decision. In his final match of the day, Dennard converted a single-leg takedown into a tough ride and then kept great position to win a 4-3 decision against Ferrum.
Freshman Larry "Ryder" Rhodes raised his team-leading record to 19-5 by going 4-1 on the day. Rhodes won his first three bouts on the strength of some aggressive takedowns and tenacious riding. Against Newport News, he dropped a last-second 1-point decision that was as much a tactical mistake as anything but rebounded from that with a strong performance against Ferrum to finish his day with four wins to continue a strong freshman campaign.
Junior Enrique Sanchez scored bonus points in all four of the matches he wrestled. He scored a pin off of a cradle to help key the team's win over Conference Carolinas foe Belmont Abbey. A technical fall against SVU followed by a pair of major decisions against Averett and Apprentice has raised his season wins to 12, which matches his career high with much wrestling still to go.
Freshman Kairyn Hall had a career day himself going 4-0, scoring a pin, a technical fall, and a pair of decisions wrestling at 157 and 165 lbs. The Glen Burnie, Maryland native was aggressive on his feet and in the top position and has now raised his total number of victories to 13 on the season.
Those top individual performances, combined with the contributions of others, helped the Big Blue win their first three duals of the year. Team wins against Belmont Abbey, Averett, and Souther Virginia were reversals of results from the previous year.
Coach Gardner's thoughts: "I was pleased with our competitiveness today. We've come a long way from last year, but we still have a way to go. Five duals in a day is tough, especially when you lack overall depth like we do. Last year Belmont Abbey shut us out. Today we were able to win. Last year Averett and SVU beat us solidly. This year we won decisively. Last year we had one guy with a record at or above.500. Right now the majority of our guys have winning records. A year ago we had one guy with 12 wins. Right now we have 5 athletes that have exceeded that number. The guys are having fun, training hard, and are buying into the system we're trying to establish and the culture we're trying to build."
