Two wrestlers lithely crouch at opposite red and green ends of a rectangle in the center of the mat, their tense eyes as still as the breath of the crowd. The referee steps back from between Virginia sophomore Ross Gitomer and Maryland redshirt sophomore Brendan Byrne. The 125-pound match of Sunday's Virginia-Maryland wrestling dual meet begins. Poised waiting for a momentary pause or a slight misstep, throughout the match both wrestlers drop to their knee and shoot forward across the mat at their opponent's legs, arms extending.
Gitomer succeeds first, with a double-leg shot, lifting Byrne off his feet and standing momentarily on the very tips of his toes before crashing back into the mat. Byrne automatically turns to his stomach while Gitomer searches for arms and feet, now winning 2-0. Byrne works his feet and hips free, stands and escapes, putting the wrestlers at neutral and the score at 2-1.
In the closing seconds of the first period, Byrne shoots, his arms around Gitomer's legs -- a position Gitomer does not find himself in very often. Byrne takes the lead after the referee determines, not without some controversy, that Byrne completed the takedown. With the crowd roaring, the quiet scoreboard ominously flickers 2-3 in Byrne's favor.
Gitomer begins the second period on his hands and knees and Byrne kneels behind him, wrapping one arm around Gitomer's waist and placing the other hesitantly on Gitomer's elbow. As soon as the elbow and hand meet, the whistle shrills and the wrestlers move as if one. Unlike Byrne, Gitomer cannot seem to throw off his opponent as easily. Byrne keeps Gitomer sliding and rolling on the mat, struggling to free his legs and hips. Gitomer catches a break when Byrne locks hands, incurring a penalty against Byrne and evening the score to three each.
After the penalty, Gitomer fights out and escapes to go ahead 4-3 as they head into the third period. Gitomer begins on top this time, though Byrne soon escapes and ties the match at four. The two wrestlers grapple and handfight until Byrne gains an advantage and begins accumulating riding time, which would give Byrne the point necessary to break the tie. With the match entering its closing seconds, Byrne clasps his hands, a call that stops the riding time and gives Gitomer another chance, according to NCAA rules.
The 1-minute sudden-victory overtime period begins at neutral and does not go to the mat until Gitomer shoots 30 seconds in; however, both wrap each other up into a stalemate.
Gitomer begins the first of two 30-second tiebreaker periods on the bottom of the referee's position and cannot get himself off the mat. Byrne switches with Gitomer, quickly making it to his feet, though the latter maintains a hold around the former's waist and throws him back to the mat. Gitomer struggles through several more escape and reversal attempts before Byrne breaks free and wins the match, 4-5.
"I think that takedown at the last second in the first period was what the match was," Gitomer said. "And the fact that I wasn't wrestling the way I needed to wrestle kind of went into it. I attacked the first period a little, in the third period I attacked, but in the second period I didn't attack the way I needed to attack."
The frustration throughout the Virginia crowd was palpable, and for no one more than the team itself.
"What's so frustrating -- that's as close as you can humanly get to a win without getting it," Virginia coach Steve Garland said. "It's insane. I mean, that was the most stressful dual meet I've ever been a part of."
The rest of the matches held a similar fate for the wrestlers -- Maryland won the match 16-15 -- as both teams traded victories until Maryland freshman Eric Medina tore open the point gap at 149 pounds, bringing the match from 13-12 Maryland to 16-12. Virginia responded, but junior Drew DiPasquale's efforts on the mat at 157 pounds was not enough to carry Virginia to the win.
Garland, however, maintained that matches in which the wrestlers grapple with the win -- but just cannot seem to pin it down --? are ones the team needs.
"We need a good, hard-fought, every match triple-overtime, double-overtime, coming out at the last second, stall calls, crazy calls with the ref -- that's what we need to get to the next level," he said.
As the team moves towards the long-awaited ACC Championship, Garland's wisdom and the Cavaliers' mat-sense will be tested soon enough when the Cavaliers face off with the rest of the ACC March 8 in College Park, Md.
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