By Tiffany Williams –
WORCESTER, Mass. — WPI wrestling brought the heat inside the WPI Sports & Recreation Center on Saturday, grinding through a brutal home quad and walking away with two wins in three matches behind undefeated days from Charlie Pavis and Joseph Bernard.
The Engineers came out swinging, steamrolling New England College 41-8 to open the day before getting clipped by Southern Maine 25-19 in the middle bout. With nothing left to give away, WPI slammed the door on Brockport in the finale, surviving a tense finish to take a 22-20 victory and cap a gritty afternoon on the mat. After the dust settled, WPI moved to 8-7 on the season, while Brockport sits at 4-2, Southern Maine at 4-9, and New England College fell to 1-14.
Pavis, the fifth-ranked 125-pounder in Region 1 from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, set the tone early and never looked back. He pinned his opponent just 53 seconds into the opener against New England College, lighting the fuse on a dominant team performance. Joel Puri followed with a forfeit win at 133, and WPI was off and running. After a brief hiccup at 141, the Engineers went right back to work. Mason Basara detonated a 16-1 tech fall at 149, Lucas Marchese and Joey Baisley stacked up back-to-back decisions, and then WPI turned the mat into a demolition site. Joseph Tully pinned his man in 1:24 at 184, Bernard crushed his bout with a pin just 1:02 in at 197, and Trevor Bowen ended it with a first-period fall at heavyweight to seal the rout.
The middle match against Southern Maine turned into a dogfight. Pavis again struck first, pinning his opponent in 1:51 to give WPI an early edge, but the Huskies ripped off five straight wins to flip the match on its head and surge ahead 22-6. Theo Sawyers stopped the bleeding with a major decision at 174, Tully blasted through his opponent with a 23-second pin at 184, and Bernard clawed WPI back within three points with a 14-8 decision at 197. The comeback stalled at heavyweight, where Southern Maine squeezed out a narrow decision to escape with the 25-19 win.
With the day on the line, WPI responded like a team that wasn’t interested in moral victories. Against Brockport, the Engineers exploded to a 15-0 lead as Pavis knocked off the second-ranked 125-pounder from Region 2, Puri delivered a pin, and Mason Medina added another fall. Brockport fired back with three straight wins to make it a one-point match, but Sawyers came up huge again with a 15-3 major decision at 174. After Brockport took 184, Bernard dug deep at 197, grinding out a 9-7 win that proved to be the difference. Brockport picked up a tight decision at heavyweight, but it wasn’t enough to flip the score as WPI held on for the 22-20 victory.
Bernard, the sixth-ranked 197-pounder in Region 1 from Stratham, New Hampshire, finished the day a perfect 3-0 alongside Pavis, anchoring the Engineers when it mattered most.
WPI now gets a brief breather before jumping back into the fire. The Engineers return to action on Friday, February 13, traveling to Springfield for a 6 p.m. tri-match against Western New England. New England College heads to Rhode Island College for a dual next Saturday, Southern Maine hosts a home quad, and Brockport travels to Castleton. Saturday in Worcester made one thing clear — WPI isn’t backing down from anyone.