The Bison wrestling team hosted a quad dual meet on Nov. 11 at Davis Gym. The team had resounding wins over VMI (36-3) and Cleveland State (25-10) but could not complete the sweep in their final match, falling to Buffalo (12-25).

Zach Hartman ’22 (3-0 at 157 pounds), Drew Phipps ’20 (3-0 at 197 pounds), and Geo Barzona ’21 (2-0 at 125 pounds), all emerged undefeated, proving to be big contributors for the Bison and securing bonus points in at least one of each of their bouts.

In his collegiate debut, Hartman pinned his first ever opponent in 6:42. He went on to win his next two victories by decision. In his third and most impressive bout of the day, Hartman took down Buffalo’s Alex Smythe in a close 8-7 victory.

Smythe had entered the day ranked as high as No. 17 nationally in his weight class. Hartman was trailing 7-6 entering the final period. He evened the score quickly with an escape and then fought off multiple takedown attempts made by Smythe to defend the riding time advantage he had built up in the match up to that point. The riding time point for Hartman proved to be the difference in an improbable victory.

At the 2018 EIWA championships, Phipps had been a placewinner at 185 pounds. In this meet, he was called upon to compete at 197 pounds. Proving his capability in the new field, Phipps won his first two bouts by a combined 23-1 margin. He continued to perform at a high level in his last match of the day against Buffalo, defeating his opponent 8-2.

“My re-attacks worked really well today,” Phipps said. “This means that I was able to use the other wrestler’s shot to actually get into my own scoring position. In addition, I wrestled really well on the mat. I was able to escape quickly every match, as well as get a good ride on top.”

Phipps has worked a lot on his game during the offseason and feels he is poised for his best season yet.

“In the off-season, I’ve just been working with my coach on getting to more shots and to more scoring opportunities,” Phipps said. “To do this, we have been working on harder hand fighting from neutral to tire out the opponent and open up more opportunity for me to get to the opponent’s legs.”

The Bison will next compete at the Navy Classic on Nov. 17.