Before Friday’s meet against No. 13 Maryland, North Carolina redshirt senior wrestler Kyle Kiss was diagnosed with a torn ligament in his thumb and was told that he was done wrestling, coach C.D. Mock said.
Kiss not only went on to wrestle that night — against the No. 2 wrestler in his weight class — but he chose to compete in Saturday’s meet against Navy, too.
UNC lost to the ACC-leading Terrapins 25-10 and fell to the Midshipmen 25-12 at Carmichael Arena, but Kiss’ toughness typified UNC’s attitude for the weekend — a resilient, never-say-die mindset that left the team with something to build upon as it enters the last two months of the season.
“It was an inspiration to all of us and demonstrative of why he’s a team captain,” C.D. Mock said. “To try to wrestle without a thumb is remarkable.”
The final scores of the two meets were nearly identical, but the momentum in each was anything but.
In Friday’s contest, Maryland (13-0, 3-0 ACC) put UNC (2-13, 1-3) on its back foot from the start.
In the first match of the night — the heavyweight division — No. 8 Spencer Myers pinned UNC freshman Frank Abbondanza in 1:39 to give the Terrapins an early 6-0 lead. The six-point margin was the closest the Tar Heels came to Maryland for the rest of the night.
In Saturday’s meet, on the other hand, UNC led for the majority of the contest before Navy (5-6) reeled off five straight victories and 18 consecutive points to claim the win.
Aside from Kiss’ grittiness, the weekend did offer some bright spots for the Tar Heels.
