No. 24 Tar Heels Lose At No. 15 Rutgers On Criteria

Friday, January 12

Piscataway, N.J.

7 p.m.

North Carolina

Rutgers

Troy Heilmann (photo courtesy of Rutgers Athletics)

January 13, 2018 | Wrestling

PISCATAWAY, N.J. --- Troy Heilmann improved to 22-3 with a win in his home state of New Jersey but No. 17 Rutgers won an even dual on criteria 18-17 over No. 24 North Carolina Friday night at the RAC. Heilmann, the No. 5 149-pounder in the country, beat No. 12 Eleazar DeLuca 4-1 to give the Tar Heels their first of five wins on the night. Kennedy Monday and Danny Chaid had major decisions for Carolina, which fell to 6-8 on the year with its seventh loss to a team currently in the top 25. Chip Ness and Cory Daniel were also winners for UNC, which opens ACC dual competition next Friday at Virginia.

A native of South Plainfield, New Jersey, Heilmann continued his amazing senior season with a win over the reigning National Wrestler of the Week in DeLuca. Heilmann scored the lone takedown of the match in the opening period and held off DeLuca for his seventh victory over a ranked opponent this season.

Monday's 16-4 win over No. 12 John Van Brill made it 10 bonus-point victories out of 12 on the year for the redshirt freshman. Chaid's major was his fifth in his last seven bouts and bumped his record to 16-6 and 12-2 in dual competition.

Ness knocked off his first top-10 foe of the campaign with a 4-3 win over No. 10 Nick Gravina at 184. His win was the first of three in a row for Carolina, with Daniel's 5-3 win at heavyweight tying the dual at 17-17. With both teams scoring five wins and neither team registering a six-point victory, the tie was broken by total match points, which saw the hosts outscore UNC 70-64.

.@Chip_Ness on his win over his first top 10 opponent of the year. #NewBreed pic.twitter.com/GmqFDDy24a
— UNC Wrestling (@UNCWrestling) January 13, 2018

No. 17 Rutgers 18, No. 24 North Carolina 17*
125: No. 2 Nick Suriano (RU) maj. dec. James Szymanski (UNC), 12-3; RU leads, 4-0
133: No. 16 Scott DelVecchio (RU) dec. No. 20 Zach Sherman (UNC), 6-2; RU leads, 7-0
141: Michael Van Brill (RU) dec. No. 17 A.C. Headlee (UNC), 7-5; RU leads, 10-0
149: No. 5 Troy Heilmann (UNC) dec. No. 12/12/11 Eleazar DeLuca (RU), 4-1; RU leads, 10-3
157: Kennedy Monday (UNC) maj. dec. No. 12 John Van Brill (RU), 16-4; RU leads, 10-7
165: No. 12 Richie Lewis (RU) maj. dec. over Josh McClure (UNC), 15-5; RU leads, 14-7
174: Joseph Grello (RU) dec. Adis Radoncic (UNC), 10-3; RU leads, 17-7
184: Chip Ness (UNC) dec. No. 10 Nicholas Gravina (RU), 4-3; RU leads, 17-10
197: No. 17 Danny Chaid (UNC) maj. dec. Kevin Mulligan (RU), 18-8; RU leads, 17-14
285: Cory Daniel (UNC) dec. Razohnn Gross (RU), 5-3; Dual tied, 17-17
*Rutgers wins dual, 18-17, by criterion 3.15.3, 70-64