The Bison wrestling squad continues to extend its impressive winning streak, dominating Franklin & Marshall 33-6 before pulling out a 25-13 comeback victory against conference opponent Army. The Orange and Blue started out their home weekend on Feb. 13 against the Franklin & Marshall team. After dropping the first match, the squad quickly took the lead with a victory by Joe Stolfi ’16. Stolfi recorded a pin in the first period against his opponent, making that his 17th pin of the season, as well as his 49th career pin and 19th straight victory.

After Stolfi, the Bison continued on with a string of dominance, earning victories in seven of the eight remaining matches in the competition. Paul Petrov ’16 and Grim Gonzalez ’17 took the 125 and 133 pound divisions respectively, with Gonzalez recording his 17th win of the season. Tyler Smith ’18 then came out with a vengeance, recording a pin just 1:37 into the match in the 141 pound division. His quick victory was followed by a 12-2 major decision by Victor Lopez ’17 to put the Bison up 23-3. Following a close loss in the 157 pound division, Robert Schlitt ’16 picked up the energy for the Bison with a 6-1 victory in the 165 pound division. Teammates Joey Krulock ’17 and Tom Sleigh ’18 rounded out the squad’s performance for the day with wins in the final two division matches and led the Bison to a dominating 33-6 final tally.

The Orange and Blue faced a quick turnaround as they took on Army in Davis Gym on Feb. 14. Lopez led the way for the squad with a major decision in the 149 pound division, but the team then quickly dropped three matches to give an early 10-4 lead to their conference opponent. To start the comeback effort, Sleigh showed his second strong performance of the weekend for the Bison when he recorded an 11-6 decision in the 184 pound division. Following a tough loss to a nationally-ranked opponent in the 197 pound division, Stolfi once again pinned his opponent, this time only 2:57 into the match. The win was the 20th in a row for Stolfi, who leads the nation with 18 pins on the year and is ranked 11th overall.

“I didn’t perform my best on Friday, but was glad that I wrestled better on Saturday,” Stolfi said.

After Stolfi’s victory tied the score at 13-13, the Orange and Blue won the final three divisions on the day to result in a 25-13 victory. Petrov, Gonzalez, and Smith all recorded their second victories on the weekend, and cemented the Bison’s overall record at 15-3, as well as 8-0 in conference and 6-0 at home. The Bison have just two more opportunities to extend their 10-game winning streak in the regular season. On Feb. 20 the squad will compete at home against Binghamton in Davis Gym.

“It’s a great feeling to be part of a historical winning streak. My freshman and sophomore year our team had losing records, so just having a winning record this season is awesome. Now that we are breaking records makes it even better,” Stolfi said.