"We came up with some big wins today," said Navy head coach Bruce Burnett. "I thought we looked a little flat-footed in some of our matches and we weren't as sharp as what we should be right now. That said, we had some solid performances by several of our guys, in particular Joe Baker, Matt Stolpinski, Antonio Miranda and Ed Prendergast. We made some mistakes, but I feel like we can work on those errors in practice this week and be ready to go for East Stroudsburg on Wednesday."
Navy opened the North Carolina match with a 2-1 victory by John Jarred (Kansas City, Mo.) at 157 pounds. However, Carolina evened the score in the following match with No. 15 Keegan Mueller edging out Navy's Justin Jacobs (LeRoy, Mich.) at 165 pounds by a 2-1 count.
Matt Stolpinski (Westfield, Mass.) and Antonio Miranda (Eugene, Ore.) earned bonus points for the Mids at 174 and 184 pounds, respectively. Stolpinski, who is ranked 10th in the country, recorded his third fall of the season, pinning Jake Forestiere in 1:52. Meanwhile, Miranda turned in his third-consecutive bonus-point win by posting a 20-6 major decision over Robert McCarthy to give Navy a 13-3 lead after four matches.
In one of the most anticipated matches of the evening, ninth-ranked Ed Prendergast (St. Louis, Mo.) handed No. 8 Spencer Nadolsky a 7-3 loss. The match marked the third time the two have met this season. Prendergast defeated Nadolsky in the semifinals of the Nittany Lion Open before beating Bloomsburg's Mike Spaid for the title. Nadolsky, however, earned a 2-3 tie breaker over Prendergast at the Southern Scuffle where the Navy junior placed fourth.
The Mids went on to win three of the final four matches to seal the win over the Tar Heels, including an exciting 5-3 victory by 11th-ranked Joe Baker (Poway, Calif.) over two-time All-American Evan Sola (ranked No. 10) at 133 pounds.
"Joe really looked sharp in his match today," said Burnett. "He did a great job of controlling the pace of the match. He got the first and last takedowns of the match and looked impressive against a two-time All-American."
Navy fell behind early in its match against N.C. State, dropping the first two matches at 157 and 165 pounds. Jarred lost a tough 5-3 decision to 19th-ranked Kody Hamrah at 157 pounds, while Jacobs also dropped a close decision, 8-4, to Obie Simpson.
Stolpinski helped close the gap for the Midshipmen as he man-handled Jalil Dozier to record a five-point technical fall. The win by Stolpinski pushes his season win total to 28, while his 10 dual match wins equals his victory mark from a year ago.
Miranda's major decision over Jeremy Colbert gave Navy its first lead of the day at 9-6. Miranda has earned wins by major decision in each of his last three matches and is 11-1 in major decisions this season.
N.C. State held its ground, taking over the lead thanks to a major decision by 12th-ranked Ryan Goodman at 197 pounds over Navy's Matt Parsons (Dunkirk, Md.).
The Midshipmen took the lead for good when Prendergast outlasted 17th-ranked Jainor Palma in the heavyweight matchup. Prendergast, who beat Palma just before the turn of the calendar year at the Southern Scuffle, was forced into overtime to earn the 3-1 victory.
Following Prendergast's win, the Mids went on to win three of the final four matchups, including a 5-1 win by Joel Ahern (Herkimer, N.Y.) at 149 pounds over Joe Caramanica.
The Mids return home to play host to EIWA foe East Stroudsburg on Wednesday. Action is set for 7:00 pm at Halsey Field House in Annapolis.
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