BUIES CREEK, N.C. – With little time to relax following a Friday night match, the VMI wrestling team succumbed to fatigue in a dual at Campbell Saturday night as the Keydets fell to the Camels by a 42-0 score at Carter Gym in Buies Creek, North Carolina.
The Camels (10-6, 6-1 SoCon) made an effort to put the match out of reach early on starting with a major decision victory by No. 15-ranked Nathan Kraisser over VMI's Dalton Henderson at 125 pounds for a 4-0 Campbell advantage. After VMI's Michael Hulcher was defeated by a 13-6 decision at 133, the Camel lead escalated to 13-0 following a Joshua Heil pin over Keydet John Reed at 141 pounds.
The Keydets (2-13, 1-7) could not recover and lost steam from that point on as Campbell went on to earn the shutout victory by way of two additional major decisions and two pins by the Heino brothers at the 184 and 285 weight classes.
At 157 pounds, VMI sophomore Neal Richards battled hard but fell by a close 2-0 decision to Austin Kraisser. Senior Shabaka Johns made work in his bout at 174 but ultimately fell by a 3-1 decision to Campbell's John Weiss. At the 197-pound division, VMI junior Taylor Thomas exchanged points with Campbell's Willie Bivens throughout the three periods but he also fell by an 11-8 decision.
With the close of the regular season, the Keydets have two weeks to prepare for the SoCon Championships slated for Saturday, March 4 hosted by The Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina.
Campbell 42, VMI 0
125: No. 15 Nathan Kraisser (CAMP) maj. dec. Dalton Henderson (VMI), 12-2 ... 0-4
133: Jonathan Ryan (CAMP) dec. Michael Hulcher (VMI), 13-6 ... 0-7
141: Joshua Heil (CAMP) pinned John Reed (VMI), 6:00 ... 0-13
149: Benjamin Barton (CAMP) maj. dec. Stevan Smith (VMI), 11-2 ... 0-17
157: Austin Kraisser (CAMP) dec. Neal Richards (VMI), 2-0 ... 0-20
165: Quentin Perez (CAMP) maj. dec. Cade Kiely (VMI), 8-0 ... 0-24
174: John Weiss (CAMP) dec. Shabaka Johns (VMI), 3-1 ... 0-27
184: No. 18 Ville Heino (CAMP) pinned Ben Wagner (VMI) , 0:45 ... 0-33
197: Willie Bivens (CAMP) dec. Taylor Thomas (VMI), 11-8 ... 0-36
285: Jere Heino (CAMP) pinned Thomas Shea-Roop (VMI), 0:52 ... 0-42
