The Maryland wrestling team will begin its 2017-18 campaign with the annual Red-Black Wrestle-Offs, which will be in the XFINITY Center at 7 p.m. tonight.

The inter-squad event will be Terp fans first look at a Maryland squad that features 11 returners from last season, including three NCAA Championships participants.

The event will feature four exhibition matches and six main card matches. The matchups for the event are the following:

Exhib.: Hunter Baxter (Red) v. Danny Bertoni (Black)

Exhib: James Spadafora (Red) v. Chase Demaille (Black)

Exhib: Shawn Mosca (Red) v. Philip Spadafora (Black)

Exhib: Kyle Jasenski (Red) v. Idris White (Black)

133 lbs. — Jhared Simmons (Red) v. Michael Doetsch (Black)

141 lbs. — Ryan Diehl (Red) v. Peter Tedesco (Black)

149 lbs. — Adam Whitesell (Red) v. Garrett Burnham (Black)

157 lbs. — Kyle Cochran (Red) v. Jahi Jones (Black)

165 lbs. — Brendan Burnham (Red) v. Patrick Gerish (Black)

174 lbs. — Josh Ugalde (Red) v. Spencer Woods (Black)

Wrestle-Offs will be Maryland’s last preseason test before opening the season at Rutgers on Nov. 4. The match, which was originally scheduled to take place at Yankee Stadium in New York, will now be at High Point Solutions Stadium on the campus of Rutgers University.

Terps Place Two at U23 World Trials

•      Junior Youssif Hemida and redshirt sophomore Jaron Smith both placed at the 2017 U23 World Team Trials in October.
•      Hemida placed 2nd and picked up an impressive win over the 2017 Maccabiah Games Champion.
•      Smith knocked off a number of formidable opponents en route to a 4th place finish. Over the course of the event he defeated a former Division II National Champion and a former two-time Division I NCAA All-American.

The Hemida Effect

•      Junior Youssif Hemida is set to have another impactful season as a Terrapin.
•      The heavyweight placed 7th in the Big Ten Championships and qualified for the NCAA Championships
•      Went 15-6 from January to March, his most dominant stretch of his career

Welcome to Maryland, Seth Ecker

•      In the summer of 2017, Maryland head coach Kerry McCoy announced the addition of Seth Ecker to the 2017 coaching staff.
•      Ecker comes to College Park after serving as an assistant coach at his alma mater, Ithaca College.
•      Ecker helped lead the Bombers to back-to-back ECWC Championships and a 28-7 dual match record over the past two seasons, in addition to a pair of top-15 finishes at the NCAA Championships.
•      Ecker, a 2012 graduate of Ithaca, capped his collegiate career by becoming the program’s first two-time national champion at 133 pounds.

More Outdoors

•      Maryland will take part in two outdoor matches this season, including one to kick-off the regular season slate.
•      The Terps will take on Rutgers at High Point Solutions Stadium on the campus of Rutgers University on Nov. 4 prior to the Maryland-Rutgers football game.
•      Maryland will also wrestle Stanford outdoors on the campus of Stanford University on Nov. 18

Terps to Air Twice on BTN

•      The Big Ten Network announced on October 10 that Maryland will be featured in two matches this upcoming season.
•      The Terps will take part in the network’s first match of the season, a road bout against Wisconsin on Dec. 7.
•      Maryland will then host Minnesota on BTN on Feb. 11 at 2 p.m.

-TERPS-

VIA- Maryland Athletics

Categories: Maryland

Tags: BIG10, Maryland Wrestling, NCAA, UMD