Last week, the Hopkins men’s wrestling team traveled to southeastern Pennsylvania to take on the Gettysburg College Bullets in an early season Centennial Conference matchup.
Down by a score of 12-3 early in the contest, the Jays were able to rally and pull off a stunning 20-19 come from behind victory against a challenging conference foe.
The win proved to be the first of the season for the Blue Jays, who improved to 1-2 in their early season slate, leveling their record in the Centennial to a mark of 1-1.
The Bullets dropped to an overall mark of 5-4 on the season after suffering defeat in their Centennial opener.
The match opened with a victory for the Jays, as senior Evan Krumheuer won with a resounding 10-7 performance in the 125-pound division. However, Hopkins would drop decisions in the next three contests, digging themselves in a 12-3 hole with only six matches remaining.
An especially disheartening defeat occurred when sophomore Lucas Escobar was forced to withdraw from his match due to injury. However, as junior Jared Forman explained, the event only served to unite and inspire the rest of the team to rally around their fallen comrade and salvage the victory.
“We had a pretty rough start, having Lucas Escobar, our 141-pound starter, injury default in a match he was winning,” Forman said. “That was a hard hit to our team and our confidence level, but it also inspired us to dig out of the hole that this unfortunate event got us into. The subsequent four straight wins at the 157, 165, 174 and 184 pound weight classes showed that our team was ready to rally and to pick up the slack after the unpredictable injury occurred.”
Hopkins would win four consecutive decisions following the injury, allowing the team to turn a major deficit into a significant advantage as the competition neared its conclusion.
Victories by sophomore Tommy Grifa, freshman Dane Morgan, Forman and freshman Isaac Morales would turn a 12-3 deficit into a 20-12 lead in the course of four matches and last-second takedowns in three of those contests afforded Hopkins the points they ultimately needed to prevail.
Gettysburg would rally to earn victories in the final two contested weight classes, but it would not be enough, as the Jays were able to hold on and claim their first win of the season by a 20-19 margin.
In terms of his personal performance, Forman told The News-Letter that he was happy to be wrestling at his preferred weight class of 174, after briefly dropping down to the 165 level earlier in the year.
“I’ve had to make a few adjustments in my style being back at the 174 weight class after wrestling 165 earlier in the year,” Forman said. “It has felt good to return to the weight class that I’ve been at for the past two years. My takedowns were timely, especially the one in the last 10 seconds to secure the major decision, I was also able to hit a couple of moves that I use in the practice room, but don’t really get a chance to use on the mat too much.”
The come-from-behind victory certainly means a lot to this team, and will serve as a confidence builder as the squad progresses into the remainder of their season.
“Moving forward, our team is focusing on maintaining our high-level conditioning and pace,” Forman said.
“Most of our matches we feel we are in better shape then out opponents, and we pride ourselves on that. At this point in the season, big changes to technique are pretty rare, so maintaining conditioning and making small changes here and there are the main focus.”
The Jays will look to even their record at 2-2 on the season when they once again travel to Gettysburg to take on New York University Violets and the Stevens Institute of Technology Ducks.
