Cornell wrestling had a busy weekend, competing at both the Maryland dual meet on Friday and then the Body Bar Invitational on Saturday, both at home in Ithaca. Overall, the results were mixed: the Red was narrowly defeated by Maryland on Friday by a final score of 18-17 in a heartbreaker that came down to the final heavyweight bout, but Cornell rebounded well with an impressive showing at the Body Bar Invitational the next day, placing second overall in the standings.

The Cornell-Maryland dual meet was an exhilarating up-and-down battle between the two opposing teams, but in the end, the No. 4-ranked Red was barely beaten by No. 10 Maryland. While the final score ended up 18-17 in favor of Maryland, Cornell was able to pick up victories from junior Frank Perrelli at 125 pounds, freshman Kyle Dake (141), junior Corey Manson (149), junior Mack Lewnes (174) and sophomore Steve Bosak (184). Since it was the first match of the year, a major factor that came into play was getting back into the rhythm of competition.

“It was the first match of the year, so I don’t think I was as ‘on’ as I would have liked to have been,” said Perrelli. “We were definitely excited about some of the performances that we had against Maryland, especially with Dake and Lewnes, but our team just kind of fell apart for a bit, and we weren’t quite able to recover.”Seeing eye-to-eye: Junior Mack Lewnes (top) won by technical fall over Maryland’s Mike Letts, ranked fourth in the nation at 174 pounds, in the Red’s 18-17 loss to the Terrapins.

“It was obviously a tough loss for our team,” said senior John Basting (165). “There were a lot of missed opportunities that we could have taken advantage of, but there’s still a lot of time left in the season to recover and improve.”

The highlight of the Red’s performance on Friday versus Maryland seemed to revolve around No. 2 Lewnes and No. 8 Dake: both had equally impressive bouts that made an impact for the entire team. Lewnes was able to defeat Maryland’s fourth-ranked Mike Letts with a tech fall victory in the closing seconds for a final score of 18-3. With an especially dominant performance now that Lewnes has moved up to the 174 weight class, the skill and control that he showed was very encouraging.

“Lewnes was just really dominant overall,” said Basting. “You definitely can’t take anything away from him. He had total control over his match.”

Dake’s match was another strong point for the Red on Friday: in an 8-3 decision, Dake found a way to come from behind and pull out a victory. Despite being down by one point late in the third period against Maryland’s No. 4 Alex Krom, Dake got a takedown with 49 seconds left on the clock, bringing the crowd to its feet. Earning back points from the takedown, Dake was able to secure the come-from-behind win in an impressive fashion.

“Dake’s match was great,” said Perrelli. “The fact that he was able to put together a performance like he had as a freshman coming in was really something.”

On Saturday, the Red wrestlers refocused themselves for the Body Bar Invitational — as a strong response to the painful loss suffered against Maryland the previous day, the Red finished in a tie for second place overall. Lewnes was able to win his third straight title by pinning two of his opponents to bring home the victory at 174. Perrelli also won in similar style, coming from behind to defeat No. 10 nationally-ranked Michael Martinez, 6-4, to get the win at 125.

“We responded really well at the Body Bar,” said Perrelli. “I was trying to focus on making my movements a little crisper and not being as sloppy. Considering that we even had a few injuries and didn’t have a few guys wrestling, we improved quite a bit in just that one day since we were able to take second place.”

Kent State won the Body Bar team competition with 147.5 points, with Cornell and Maryland following close behind, tying for second place with 109 points. Aside from the wins by Lewnes and Perrelli, other wrestlers that placed for Cornell include junior Mike Grey (third place at 133), junior D.J. Meagher (fourth place at 157), Bosak (third place at 184), senior Nate Holley (fifth place at 184), sophomore Cam Simaz (second place at 197) and senior Taylor Moore (fifth place at heavyweight).

“The team did really well [at the Body Bar],” said Basting. “The coaches understand that sometimes you lose close ones [like Maryland], so at this one, they told us to just go out, have fun, and do the best we can. Overall, I just think it came down to a lot of people having really good matches.”

After a short break for the Thanksgiving holiday, the wrestlers will return to action at the Las Vegas Invitational on Dec. 4 and 5. Fueling off of this exciting past weekend, the wrestlers are hoping to carry the momentum forward into Vegas.

“We want to have the same mentality and really focus on staying healthy,” said Perrelli. “We’re all excited to go out and compete at Vegas.”