After a strong 25-12 win against Virginia on Friday night, the North Carolina men’s wrestling team looked poised to take on the seventh-ranked Nebraska Cornhuskers on Saturday in a match where it knew its approach could be anything but cavalier.
While the Tar Heels put up a fight, taking a 7-0 lead early on, they eventually fell to Nebraska 34-7.
“On paper, we’ve got no chance against a team like Nebraska,” said head coach C.D. Mock. “I just wanted us to go out there and fight real hard, and that’s exactly what we did.”
The heavyweight bout, in which UNC’s Spencer Nadolsky squared off against Nebraska’s Mitch Manstedt, seemed to epitomize the Tar Heels’ struggle. Weighing in at 285, Manstedt enjoyed not only a 55-pound advantage over Nadolsky but the added benefit of a few extra inches as well.
As the pair shook hands in the center of the ring, it was hard to believe a UNC David had any chance against the corn-fed Goliath at all.
There’s a reason, of course, Nadolsky wrestles heavyweight. His strength enables him to stand up to opponents twice his size. In fact, Nadolsky said he realized quickly that “(Manstedt) wasn’t ever going to take me down.”
The pair went back and forth during the first period, but with neither making a successful strike, the duel remained scoreless at the sound of the first buzzer.
Carmichael Auditorium had become completely silent. With the Tar Heels losing 31-7, the crowd was well aware this was their last chance for redemption.
In the second period, Manstedt finally ended the scoring drought with an escape that put him ahead 1-0 going into the third. Seconds later, Nadolsky responded with a reversal from which Manstedt then escaped to even the score at 2-2.
