Wrestling defeats Eastern Michigan to win Beauty and the Beast meet
Kent State junior Tyler Buckwalter won by decision over Eastern Michigan’s Devan Marry, 9-5, at the Beauty and the Beast wrestling and gymnastics event in the M.A.C. Center on Friday, Jan. 30, 2015. The Flashes swept their competition at the Beauty and the Beast for the third straight year as Kent State’s gymnastics team defeated Pittsburgh 195.750 to 191.175 and the wrestling team beat Eastern Michigan 25-9.
Seven minutes, three periods, one goal: To win, which the Kent State wrestling team achieved Friday night during the annual Beauty and the Beast event, defeating Eastern Michigan 25-9 at the M.A.C. Center.
Junior Del Vinas (125 pounds) started the night with an impressive win, putting Kent State up 3-0.
This lead was not kept for long as Eastern Michigan’s Vincent Pizzuto put three points on the board right. This was the only tie that came out of the night.
Junior Ian Miller (157) led the team by earning five points for the Flashes.
“(Miller) is our best wrestler, one of the best kids in the country,” coach Jim Andrassy said. “I thought we wrestled pretty well. It’s always important to win, and we did. We haven’t had a whole lot of those this year, and it is a conference match, which is important too.”
Some Kent State wrestlers said they still finds a lot of room for improvement in the future.
“Our team put a good performance on tonight,” junior Michael DePalma (149) said. “We still have a lot to improve on, but we’re working hard everyday to make those improvements come faster. We still need to wrestle to our capability as a whole. You know, we just haven’t had a match where everyone wrestled like they are able too.”
The Flashes (7-10, 3-2 MAC) will head to Mt. Pleasant, Michigan on Sunday to face another rival, Central Michigan, at 2 p.m. Then the Flashes will return to the M.A.C. Center to host Northern Iowa on Feb. 8.
Contact Megan McEldowney at [email protected].