Danville, VA - Bluefield State University men's wrestling competed at the annual Cougar Duals hosted by Averett University on Saturday. The Big Blue split the day, going 2-2 in duals as a team, highlighted by a number of impressive individual performances on the day.
Larry Ryder Rhodes went undefeated (5-0) on the day, getting in an additional exhibition match as a favor to the host team. Rhodes had a pair of falls, a regular decision, a major decision, and a forfeit victory.
Simeon Bryant and Greg Dennard combined to go 4-0 at heavyweight, splitting matches. Bryant upped his team-leading victory total to 13 with a pair of decisions, including a last-minute victory over an opponent from Belmont Abbey he'd lost to previously. Dennard complimented his teammates' performance with two solid wins of his own, including a throw for a pin.
Kairyn Hall and Enrique Sanchez both had three victories on the day. Sanchez had bonus points in all three of his wins, including a pair of pins and a technical fall. Hall had a pair of pins in his three match wins as well as a regular decision.
A trio of wrestlers earned a pair of victories on the day: Thomas Dolo with a pin and a forfeit at 174 to help the team. Freshman Xavier Nguyen, usually a 141 lb. wrestler, with a forfeit at 197 and then moved to 149 where he scored a fall. Freshman Jowon Omotoso has been heating up after a slow start and won a pair of matches by fall at 157 lbs.
Coach Gardner's thoughts:
"Today was an up and down day. We had some injuries that hurt us, but we battled. In our first match against Belmont Abbey, we closed the gap on them a bit from last time by winning more matches this dual than in our last meeting. We dominated in our second match, but then took a step back against Ferrum. Ferrum is good, but we didn't wrestle as tough as I had hoped. So, I told them before our final bout with Marymount 'You can salvage a .500 day and leave on a positive note, or you can feel bad for yourselves after that last match and roll over in this next one. The choice is yours.' I'm happy to say that they rallied and wrestled really well. We had a number of pins in that dual and wrestled with the aggression I'd been hoping to see all year."
