Wrestling: Turtle soup and a tiger skin rug

We're talking Maryland wrestling.

Not Maryland hoops, not lacrosse, not even football.  Wrestling.

We win. Deal with it!

A pair of wins on the weekend moved the Scarlet Knights to 13-3 on the season. And with the dominating win over the Terps, 30-3, RU moved to 3-2 in the Big Ten, surpassing last season's win total in conference.

And on Sunday, the Knights picked up their 20th consecutive win over instate rival Princeton, 28-6. Overall, the Knights won 17 of the 20 bouts wrestled on Friday and Sunday. And with the win over Princeton, the Knights took home the B1G-Ivy Rivalry Trophy (photo above).

The only loss in the Maryland match was at 133 pounds in a pairing of two ranked wrestlers.  The Terps No. 16 Geoffrey Alexander took a 9-2 win over No. 18 Anthony Giraldo. But the rest of the squad held serve including a major decision by Sean McCabe at 125 and a tech fall by Anthony Perrotti at 165.

The finale on the night was an exciting tie-breaker round win by heavyweight Billy Smith.  It was a "Mutt and Jeff" match up, with Maryland's Dawson Peck standing a full head taller than Smith.  The unusual size difference is definitely a challenge for any wrestler; trust me, I've been there.  The shorter Smith was able to shoot in but had difficulty finishing against the much taller Peck.  The two went eight minutes with Smith finally getting an escape and a takedown in the final 30-second period.

Coming out of the intermission, Anthony Perrotti had a statement win to set the tone for the last five bouts.  The tech fall, Perrotti's third of the season, brought him to 15-2 overall and 13-1 in dual competition.

With the crowd of 2,407 for the Maryland match, Rutgers is averaging 2,414 per match on the season.

Full results are here.

The non-conference Princeton match saw another dominating performance by the Knights.  Opening up at 184 pounds, Nick Gravina took an upset 7-1 win over No. 19/18/20 Abram Ayala.  After losing at 197, the Knights reeled off seven straight wins including a second period fall by Anthony Giraldo at 133 and a 10-2 major by Anthony Ashnault.

Full Princeton match results are here

Next weekend, the Knights host Wisconsin on Friday in a makeup of the Blackout Match postponed due to he snowstorm.  Michigan (10-1, 5-0 B1G) comes into the RAC on Sunday.

Rutgers President Robert Barchi cheers on wrestling team Watch at: https://t.co/hSfsk4zEvG pic.twitter.com/syoYRYpE78

— friendlydb (@friendlydb) January 30, 2016

I have to admit that I was jokingly surprised about Barchi showing up for the match.  I've been a critic of him for not "getting" major athletics.  So I tweeted about him needing directions to the RAC.  And Coach Goodale responded:

"@scarknight: @KSargeantNJ Sure he had to be driven - not sure he knows where RAC is." He does now!!

— Coach Scott Goodale (@CoachGoodale) January 30, 2016

Touche, Coach!

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