The wrestling team came out on Saturday afternoon against non-conference opponent Newberry, ranked No. 12 in the Division II polls, with a result that left coach Carter Jordan more upbeat than he was after last Wednesday’s narrow victory against Duke.

“[We] just kind of graded them on what they did, things that we [are] trying to focus on and graded them off about how physical they were and how we hustled and how intensively we wrestled the whole match,” he said. “The overall grade would probably be a B, B-, something like that. [It was] much better than the last time we were out there.”

Redshirt sophomore Ryan Goodman also spoke about what Jordan said after the match.

“Good job, keep working hard,” Goodman said. “It was a lot better than last time.”

Redshirt sophomore Jalil Dozier said during the team’s practice the wrestlers realized the mistakes they made and what needed to be changed.

“We definitely came out today and took care of business,” he said. “We went back to practice and realized that we made a lot of mistakes. We weren’t physical and we weren’t wrestling hard, and that’s not the way we do it here. We came out here today and did a better job.”

At one point, Newberry was only trailing 13-9 as five of its wrestlers with a 79-22 combined record were about to take to the mat. But with help of Dozier, Goodman, Jeremy Colbert and Jainor Palma, the Pack was able to put away the Indians by a final score of 34-12, bringing its overall record to 7-4 while the Indians dropped to 11-3-1.

Jordan said he was pleased with the rest of his starters.

“Glad to see Jeremy Colbert back,” he said. “That’s who we recruited — that’s how he wrestles. It’s just taken him a while to get down on the weight to get healthy. Ryan was Ryan — that’s what he does. Jainor did a good job, a workman-like effort today. [I’m] very pleased.”

Some starters did not participate in the match, including junior Kody Hamrah who was given some rest before this weekend’s upcoming matches, according to Jordan. Freshman Darrion Caldwell and sophomore Obie Simpson, who are recovering from injuries, should be back for the team’s next two matches, Jordan said.

The Pack will head down Tobacco Road to wrestle at North Carolina at 7 p.m. Friday, followed by a return to Reynolds to wrestle No. 25 Navy on Saturday at 7 p.m.