No. 24 UNC wrestling falls on the road against No. 17 Rutgers

No. 24 North Carolina wrestling fell to No. 17 Rutgers 18-17 on Friday night, losing on criteria for the second time this season

“I’m tired of losing on criteria,” head coach Coleman Scott said. “And I’m tired of losing close matches.”

What happened?

UNC (6-8) got off to a slow start on the day, dropping the first three matches of the dual and falling behind 10-0 to the Scarlet Knights (4-3). The Tar Heel’s first match win came from No. 5 Troy Heilmann, who beat out No. 12 Eleazar DeLuca, 4-1, in the 149-pound match. This was followed by a major win from Kennedy Monday over No. 12 John Van Brill in the 157-pound match.

The Tar Heels then dropped two matches in a row, going down 17-7 with three matches left. UNC won all three matches, highlighted by Chip Ness’ first top-10 win of the season over No. 10 Nick Gravina in the 184-pound match, and a major win from No. 17 Danny Chaid in the 197-pound match.

With no matches left and the score tied at 17-17, the decision had to be made on criteria. With Rutgers’ 70 total match points against UNC’s 64, the Scarlet Knights came out on top with an 18-17 win.

Who stood out?

The Tar Heels had three ranked wins in Heilmann, Monday and Ness, with Ness gaining his first top-10 victory this year. The win followed a string of matches lost by Ness in the last few seconds, so to finally close one out seemed to be reassuring to him.

“I’ve been pushing a lot of boundaries,” Ness said. “And I’ve been having a lot of close losses to big name guys. So, it feels nice to get over that hump.”

And while Scott sees this win as an accomplishment for Ness, he still sees a lot more room for improvement.

“Finally, he’s gotten over the hump a little bit,” Scott said. “He has to do more, though. We’ve got to score a takedown in that match. I’m going to hold him to a higher standard than just getting by.”

When was it decided?

The dual was decided after all the matches had already been wrestled. With a tied final score of 17-17, the dual had to be decided by total match points. Rutgers’ 70 beat out UNC’s 64.

Why does it matter?

This dual marked UNC’s second loss on criteria, the first coming from the Tar Heels’ 17-16 loss against No. 11 Northern Iowa. Frustrated by the team’s second loss in this fashion, Scott sees this dual as a way for the team to learn from its mistakes.

“We’ve got to do something to change,” Scott said. “Maybe our attitude just has to be a little bit different. We’re going to go and look at it as a staff, and we’ll get better from it. We’ve just got to grind away.”

This loss may have been the push the Tar Heels needed to regain focus after a tough non-conference schedule as the team heads into ACC duals.

When do they play next?

The Tar Heels will face off against UVA in Charlottesville this Friday to start off their ACC dual competition.

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