Bucknell Wrestling celebrated six graduating seniors on Friday night in their final home regular season match. The wrestlers who were honored included Logan Deacetis ʼ25, Kolby DePron ʼ25, Grayson McLellan ʼ25, Trevor Nugent ʼ25, Kurt Phipps ʼ25 and Nolan Springer ʼ25.

The Bison faced out-of-conference opponents Columbia in a back-and-forth battle. Logan Shephard ʼ26 won the first match of the contest to give Bucknell an early lead. A loss from Chris Nucifora ʼ28 followed by a victory from Phipps gave the Bison an overall 7-6 advantage after three matches. Unfortunately, a string of losses from Bucknell halted the team’s momentum. Losses from Dylan Chappell ʼ26, Aiden Davis ʼ27, Cade Wirnsberger ʼ27 and Noah Mulvaney ʼ27 turned the one-point advantage into a 14-point deficit. A win from Myles Takats ʼ27 broke the streak and added to Bucknell’s points, but was followed by a loss from Deacetis. First-year Dillon Bechtold’s win in the final match concluded the evening’s affair with a final score of 25-16 in favor of Columbia.

The following day, the Bison traveled north to Ithaca, N.Y. to take on #9 Cornell, a team that boasted an impressive 10-1 record. After forfeiting the opening match, Phipps defeated his opponent once again to score six for the Bison. After losses from Chappell and Braden Bower ʼ26, Bucknell got back on the board via a win from Riley Bower ʼ26. This win cut the lead to 13-11, in favor of Cornell. Mulvaney, Deacetis and Mikey Bartush ʼ26 all were unable to get any points for the Bison, and despite late victories from Takats and Shephard, Bucknell ultimately fell by a final score of 27-18. With this, the regular season concluded, and the Bison ended the season with a record of 5-12. A much-needed rest period will begin before the EIWA championships in a few weeks.