ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Despite winning three of the first five matches and building a 10-6 advantage, the Navy wrestling team (2-3) dropped a 26-10 decision to ninth-ranked Oklahoma (4-2) in front of a raucous crowd at Wesley Brown Field House in Annapolis Saturday evening. It was the first dual meet held in the facility which was built in 2008 and was named for the first African American to graduate from the school, retired Lt. Cmdr. Wesley A. Brown.
“I knew we would be a little tired out there tonight because I worked them pretty hard this week, but overall I thought we competed hard,” said 12th-year Navy head coach Bruce Burnett, whose Mids competed in the Southern Scuffle this past Sunday and Monday and did not get back to the Academy until late Tuesday evening.
“I think we let at least two matches get away from us. I think we panicked a little. But, when you wrestle the great teams they will exploit your weaknesses. The flip side of that is that you can see what those weaknesses are and work on fixing them. A perfect example of that is Bobby Barnhisel who did not make the mistakes tonight that he did early in the year. We dropped the match, but we gained a great deal by wrestling Oklahoma.”
Navy junior Bobby Barnhisel (River Forest, Ill.) gave the Mids a much-needed boost in the following bout, as he scored a huge upset over 12th-ranked Matt Lester at 157 pounds. Barnhisel, who in the last week has gotten back on the mat after suffering a knee injury in mid-November, struck quickly as he took Lester down just 10 seconds into the match and pushed his lead to 5-0 with a three-point nearfall. Although Lester would rally in the final period and a late takedown with 15 seconds remaining would clip Barnhisel’s lead to just one, the Navy junior posted an escape with two seconds remaining to earn an 8-6 victory over Lester.
“Bobby competes hard all of the time, so that really wasn’t a surprise tonight,” said Burnett. “He wrestled with great intensity and energy, but again he was able to learn from previous mistakes and earn a great win tonight.
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