Wrestling excels, even with lofty goals

After winning its second straight ACC Championship and finishing 10th at the NCAA Championships last season, the Terrapin wrestling team set the bar for the 2009-10 season higher than ever before.

So when the Terps failed to repeat as ACC champions and fell all the way to 20th at the NCAA Championships this season, it was understandably a bitter pill to swallow for those who had hoped to see the Terps cement their status among the nation's elite.

The disappointing finish also marred an otherwise impressive season for the program, in which it finished 19-4, including five wins over ranked teams.

"We definitely aren't happy with the overall results [in the NCAA Championships]," coach Kerry McCoy said. "But when you look at the year we had overall, by a lot of standards it was an incredible year. One of the worst things about having such high expectations is that when you don't reach them, you fall that much further down."

After easily sweeping a dual meet against York and Drexel to start the season, the Terps announced their arrival onto the national stage with a come-from-behind upset of then-No. 4 Cornell in Ithaca, N.Y.

Down eight points with two matches to go against the Big Red, 197-pound star Hudson Taylor pinned All-American Cam Simaz before Gilmore sealed the comeback with an overtime win against No. 12 Josh Arnone to give the program arguably its biggest victory since McCoy took over in 2008.

"That Cornell match stands out to me because of the way we came back to win," McCoy said. "It was a special win for this program."

The team also finished sixth at the highly competitive Midlands Championships and went undefeated in the ACC regular season — feats that would have been largely impossible without the contributions of one of the program's most decorated classes of all time.

Taylor became the school's first three-time All-American and eclipsed the school mark for most career pins and wins this season, and 133-pound Steve Bell became the school's fifth repeat All-American. Former All-American 141-pound Alex Krom closed out a 20-win season just short of joining his teammates on the podium.

Even 125-pound James Knox, a wrestler McCoy said most people would have never expected to become a starter and national qualifier, played a key role in the Terps' success with 21 wins in an injury-plagued season.

"A lot of these guys could have transferred or refused to change their styles when [former coach Pat] Santoro left," McCoy said. "But you have to give them credit: They said they came to the University of Maryland, and they embraced the change and really elevated their wrestling."

The departing seniors will leave a sizable gap in the Terps' starting lineup, but the cupboard is far from bare. Nationally ranked heavyweight Pat Gilmore and 174-pound Mike Letts are both expected to fill the void left by the trio of former All-Americans, and four other starters, including national qualifiers Kyle John and Josh Asper, will be back to build on their success.

After solid redshirt campaigns, freshmen Jimmy Sheptock, Dallas Brown, Christian Boley and Justin Cash will be called upon to provide sorely needed depth.

And just because their careers are over doesn't mean the graduating seniors can't still make a lasting impact on the program. McCoy said both Bell and Krom will be back in the wrestling room as often as possible, and Taylor said he plans to help teach his younger teammates if they need it.

"That is the mark of a great program," McCoy said. "The alumni support and help will always be welcome here. And maybe in three or four years, some of the guys will come back and the team will say that's the 2010 class, the best class in school history. We want to get where they were."

lemaire@umdbk.com