By Pat Zazzarino

The KU wrestling team won two of its three-season opening games on Sunday afternoon at the Terrapin Duals. The Golden Bears topped Johns Hopkins with a whopping 44-6 final score, as well as conquering Alderson-Broaddus 40-9. KU’s only loss was against the host, University of Maryland, with a score of 35-10.

The University of Maryland proved a difficult game for the Maroon and Gold, with Maryland leading 31-0 to the 174-pound matchups. It was senior Andre Petroski that earned KU’s first points for a fall, and finally Haddad winning a 15-2 decision to secure KU’s last couple of points, finalizing the game.

KU senior heavyweight Ziad Haddad, who won all of his matchups last season, continues his outstanding career falling all three of his opponents within seconds by pin. He had his quickest victory in his career against a matchup from Johns Hopkins, pinning his opponent in 16 seconds, which it tied for sixth place in fastest falls in a school’s history. His other victories were a pin in 57 seconds from Alderson-Broaddus, and a 15-2 decision against a heavyweight from the University of Maryland.

While Haddad did have the fastest pins overall, the quickest pin of the night came from the surprise effort of freshmen redshirt Collin Schildt pinning 197-pounder from Johns Hopkins in ten seconds, one away from tying that school record.

According to an article on KU bears by Sports Information Director, Bryan Salvadore, the rest of the wrestling squad crucially chipped in to the wins. Petroski began his career to be 3-0, winning two by falls and the last by a decision. Freshmen Travis Roper earned two wins (one by pin, the other by decision against Alderson-Broaddus) and sophomore Matt Benvenuto also won two matches, nailing a fall at 5:32 and a 20-0 tech-fall against Alderson-Broaddus.

The efforts of 2014 qualifier Bo Candelaria and freshmen Brandon Wolfe did not go unnoticed as Candelaria won two matches by major decision and Wolfe winning his two matches as well. Candelaria only surrendered one total point in his two victories.

After a satisfying opening, KU falls back home to rest this week preparing themselves before traveling to East Stroudsburg’s open on Nov. 16.