After a long holiday layoff, the Spartan wrestlers returned to action Sunday against the Bisons of Bucknell. Unfortunately for the Spartans, the Bisons seemed to be firing on all cylinders.

The final score, 25-12 Bucknell, would seem to say that the Spartans were not competitive in the meet. That is just not true; they just could not quite replicate the same kind of scoring as the Bisons. Bucknell recorded a pin, technical fall and two major decisions against the Spartans.

While this meet was a bit of a letdown, the long holiday break may help explain why the team was not totally involved. It seems like everyone is attempting to shake off the holiday lethargy and return to a productive reality; hopefully we will see that next Sunday when the Spartans square off against the Michigan Wolverines at home.

Positive Takeaways

John Rizqallah, Nick Proctor, Ryan Watts and Hermilo Esquivel recorded wins against the Bisons.

Esquivel managed to hold off Grim Gonzalez to get the 4-3 win in their match. After a scoreless first, Esquivel got an escape in the second, a single-leg takedown in the third, and a last-second escape sealed the victory for Esquivel.

After the intermission, Watts dominated his match throughout to win by a score of 8-3 while notching 3:03 of riding time.

Proctor was aggressive in his match too, getting two first-period takedowns in his 4-2 win over Rory Bonner.

Rizqallah continued the winning ways by edging Tom Sleigh by a score of 3-2. Rizqallah got a takedown in the first and an escape in the second while holding off multiple shots to get the victory. Rizqallah now holds an 11-3 record on the year, a positive mark for the team.

While the match did not go the men of Sparta’s way, the 165 to 184 weight classes were fairly dominant in their matches. Pay attention to those weight classes in the dual against the Wolverines next Sunday.

Nick Carver is the host of Pinned Down for Impact Sports

Photo: Hannah McEnroe/Impact Sports