The 18th-ranked wrestling team hosted rival and fifth-ranked SUNY-Cortland tonight in the Ben Light Gymnasium.

It was senior night for the Blue and Gold and the gym lights were dimmed down, a decent crowd was in attendance and the lone senior on the team, 165-pound Greg Davis, was recognized before the match began.

However, the Bombers came up short against Cortland, losing 25–12, finalizing their dual-meet record at 11–5 on the season.

A large part of the South Hill squad’s downfall was its slow start to the contest. The front half of the Bombers lineup, which consists of the lighter wrestlers, has been particularly strong this season.

However, tonight was quite the contrary. The Bombers lost their first four bouts, three by decision and one by major decision, to go down 13–0 early on.

“There was a lot of close matches,” Head Coach Marty Nichols said. “We had to win the close ones. [Cortland] won more close ones than we did.”

At this point it looked like the Bombers were on their way to getting blown out in front of the home crowd. But then 157-pound junior John Paxos stepped in to face Cortland’s Will Brodfuehrer.

With Paxos leading 3–2 at the start of the third period, Brodfuehrer tied it up at three with 1:55 remaining. It was not until the last 30 seconds that Paxos regained the lead with the referee awarding him two points to go up 5–3. With little time remaining, Brodfuehrer closed the gap to one, but that is all he would get as Paxos won 5–4 to make the match 13–3.

Up next was 165-pound sophomore John Dale, who went up against the 10th-ranked wrestler in the country, Zack Bogardus. Dale was up 3–1 at the start of the third period, but lost the lead with Bogardus tying it up at three with 1:40 remaining. Then, 22 seconds later, Dale regained the lead at 4–3 and held on to finish the bout with that score as the crowd and Bomber bench went wild. The score stood at 13–6 after Dale’s impressive victory..

Dale said he was feeling sick earlier in the week, but felt good enough conditioning-wise for his match tonight.

“I’ve been hurt for a while, but I felt really good tonight and I felt good in practice,” Dale said.

After Dale came 174-pound freshman David Priest, who matched up with Tom Delosia, who right from the start was no match for the promising wrestler from Manasquan, N.J. Priest dominated the whole bout, being up 8–1 after the first, 10–1 after the second and 12–2 with 1:23 remaining in the third. It was not until 59.6 seconds left that Priest pinned Delosia. Nonetheless, it put the Blue and Gold down one point 13–12.

“I felt pretty good on my feet,” Priest said. “I just figured I wrestled well on my feet and go from there. I wasn’t expecting to pin him.”

It looked like the Bombers were going to pull out a come from behind victory. But, it was at this point that the Red Dragons took over the match. In the very next bout, 184-pound freshman Brandon Stark was pinned by Trevor LeBlanc to put Ithaca down 19–12.

Then 197-pound David Sbriscia battled in arguably one of the slowest bouts all season long. There were at least five stops for either blood or injury, as Sbriscia was constantly getting cut or hurt. Still, the big sophomore battled and lost a close one 6–2, solidifying a guaranteed victory for Cortland.

Heavyweight sophomore Joe Goetz would lose his bout in overtime 3–1 to make the final score 25–12.

Even though the Bombers lost, there were a number of positives that came out of the evening. The back half of the lineup, which consists of the heavier weight classes, usually is the Blue and Gold’s trouble spots in close matches. Yet tonight, they kept Ithaca within reach of Cortland.

“They just kept pressure on guys,” Nichols said. “It looked like they were in a little better condition.”

Dale said he was happy with the way he and the rest of his teammates competed.  

“We wrestled tough, but they’re a good team,” Dale said. “Pretty much all the matches could have gone either way. Some of the matches go our way we could’ve came out on top tonight.”

Priest also felt like the entire team battled well.

“We wrestled them pretty well considering they’re ranked fifth in the country,” Priest said.

The Bombers are back in action at 11 a.m. next Saturday when they travel to Oneonta, N.Y., for the Empire Collegiate Wrestling Conference Championships.