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The Daily Tar Heel
From the Press Box

Fast starts by Maryland and Navy doom UNC's hopes

The strong starts from both Maryland and Navy proved to be too much for the North Carolina wrestling team to overcome in its 25-10 and 25-12 losses to the Terrapins and the Midshipmen during the weekend.

The Terrapins were able to set the tempo for Friday night’s dual meet early, as Spencer Myers pinned freshman Tar Heel Frank Abbodanza midway through the third period and put Maryland ahead in the meet 6-0.

From there, Maryland never seemed to lose complete control of the meet. They shot early and often, scoring the first match points in six of their seven victories on the night.

Freshman Evan Henderson and sophomore Corey Mock, however, recorded important victories for the Tar Heels. Henderson won 4-2 after he had to fight off an early cow catcher from Terrapin Frank Goodwin and wrestled from behind to score the winning reversal
off of a failed Goodwin spread-eagle.

Mock recorded a 10-2 upset of Maryland’s Kyle John, who was ranked 11th at 157 pounds.

After the loss to the Terrapins, who improved their dual meet record to 13-0 with the victory, UNC looked to rebound against Navy.

The Tar Heels started the meet off well with a fall from sophomore Zac Bennett against Midshipman Paul Rands. UNC then traded blows with Navy, as Brian Bokoski and Evan Henderson recorded wins alongside Navy victors Aaron Kalil and Dan Miller. However,
the momentum swung to the Midshipmen for good when Joe Locksmith scored a last-second takedown on UNC’s Jon Burns to win 6-4.

Although many Tar Heels were able to draw their matches out and wrestle well in the third period, Navy then went on to sweep
the remaining 4 matches and took the dual meet.

The Tar Heels were unable to secure the meet win, but there were some bright spots within the lineup. Sophomore Brian Bokoski turned in a solid rebound performance for UNC after he was edged 7-6 on Friday evening with a last-second takedown from
Maryland’s Shane Gentry.

Bokoski returned to wrestle Saturday against Navy’s Tyler
Sackett. Sackett put Bokoski in an early hole after scoring a single-leg takedown in the first period, but Bokoski wrestled back throughout his match and secured the victory for
the Tar Heels after a key reversal midway through the third period.

Evan Henderson also had to bounce back from an early deficit. After surrendering an early single-leg takedown to Midshipman Dustin Haislip, Henderson was able to tire Haislip out during the course of the match and won with a 6-2 decision.

UNC fell to 2-13 on the season with the pair of losses, and will look to rebound when it travels to Raleigh for a dual meet against NC State on Friday at 7 p.m.

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