Just days after moving into Intermat Division III Wrestling Rankings as the #25 team in the nation, John Carroll backed it up by going 5-0 as the hosts of the 2018 JCU duals.  

The Blue Streaks started off hot, beating Urbana 40-6 in round one.  John Carroll scored early and often by having Andrew Perelka win his first match of the day, then Spencer Dusi pinned his opponent, which lead to a tech fall by Jarrod Brezovec to put the Blue Streaks up 17-0.

Brezovec, who is the only Blue Streaks ranked among the ten of a weight class by Intermat, was victorious in all three of his matches.

The Blue Streaks weren't done, Jarrad Lasko then would beat his opponent to put the Blue Streaks up 20-0.  After Urbana won the 165 lbs. match, John Carroll would counter with a Christian DeDi win and a pin by Aidan Whitis to bring the score to 29-3.

Russ Porter and Luca Santillo finished the match by forcing their opponents to a fall and tech fall, respectively, bring the final score to 40-6.

After match one assistant coach Chad Rhoades said that he was "happy with the 40-6 win" and that he wanted the team to "work on wooing the crowd, bring some excitement to the gym, and turn up the volume."

The Blue Streaks listened Rhoades and followed through on their second round match against PSU-Behrend and delivered with a 46-3 victory.  Rhoades was pleased, giving a special shout out to Shane Ging by "delivering the thunder and turning up the volume" by pinning his opponent with only 13 seconds remaining in the third period.

Also pinning their opponents were Josh Stasek (285) and Seth Winkle (165), while Ian Whitis (141) and Perelka (125) finished their matches early via the tech fall.  The other Blue Streak winners were; Dom Devine, Jeff Brichford, Darrell Lane, and Luke Reicosky.  

Round three against Waynesburg started off just like the others, with the lighter weight Blue Streaks sweeping their opponents. Perelka started off with a pin, followed by a Dusi tech fall and a Brezovec decision, bringing the score to 14-0.

Lasko would pin his opponent and Danny Novak would sweat out a nail biting 9-8 victory in the 157 pound weight class, after being down 4-1 early in the match.  The John Carroll wrestling team and coaches along with the fans sprang to their feet to cheer on the great comeback by Novak.

Reicosky built off of Novak's energy and beat his opponent in the 165 weight class, Sam Gross would then increase the lead by six with a pin at 174 to bring the score 32-0.

Waynesburg would win the final three matches, including a decision at 285 by the nation's top ranked wrestler in that division (Jake Evans), but the damage had been done as the Blue Streaks won, 32-12.

In round four the Blue Streaks faced off against both Lourdes and Pitt-Bradford.

Starting with the Lourdes match, Perelka moved to 12-0 on his career by pinning his opponent early in the match.  John Carroll would then control the tempo by having wins from, Dusi, Lasko, Novak, Iain Whitis, Gross, and DeDi.

"Sammy Gross had a good match," said Rhoades. "He had to wrestle against someone that beat him previously in the year and this time he came out on top, so we are pleased with him and Sam also helped to turn up the volume in here."  

The final score was 28-9, moving John Carroll to 4-0 on the day.

In the final match against Pitt-Bradford, John Carroll continued its dominance, winning every match except one to have another 40 point match. John Carroll would get wins from Kyle Murray, Brichford, Brezovec, Devine, Ging, Winkle, Reicosky and Luke McKeon.  Luca Santillo capped off a dominant 42-6 team performance for John Carroll with a fall.

That win would move John Carroll to 5-0 on the day and 6-0 on the season in dual meets.

The Blue Streaks won't wrestle again until next Tuesday, November 27th at 7 p.m. at cross-town and OAC rival Baldwin-Wallace University.