The wrestling team opened up its home season with a dual match against Utah Valley on Friday and the second annual N.C. State Open on Saturday. The team fell to Utah Valley, 26-10, and continued its lackluster performance at the Open.

“We made some young mistakes,” junior Darrius Little said. “We’ve told the team that they have to mature much faster, but we’re going to get better with practice.”

The team started out against Utah Valley with a bang when Little and freshman Dale Shull each won their bouts. Junior Colton Palmer had an injury default at 149 due to a concussion. Then, junior Bobby Ward won at 157 before Utah quickly gained the lead, winning the final six matches.

“We came out pretty well,” Little said. “Then we went downhill. We made mistakes, and Utah is a tough team. It’s their first year [as a Division 1 team.] They came to prove a point and they proved it.”

Hoping to bounce back from the loss to Utah Valley on Saturday, the Pack wrestled Utah as well as schools from across the nation at the N.C. State Open, despite losing several starters to injury.

“Bobby Isola has a pretty sever ankle sprain. We’re going to have to check on Palmer and Bobby Ward, who’s kicked up a bit,” coach Carter Jordan said. “But it’s nothing serious.”

The team was unable to sport any weight-class into the final round. Little placed third in the 133-bout and Shull placed sixth at 141.

According to Jordan, Little’s performance throughout the weekend has shown how far he has improved and how well he is leading the team.

“He really has shown a lot of maturity,” Jordan said. “He’s handled his weight maturely. He’s very talented and is working extremely hard.”

Yet, Little is more disappointed with the mistakes he made than happy with his accomplishments.

“I just lost that match because I wasn’t aware,” Little said. “I need to work on my mat awareness. The rest of the matches were just me wrestling out of anger, rather than wrestling to be smart.”

Shull’s wrestling thus far is impressive and in turn earned him the starting role at 141, Jordan said.

“He has not wrestled like a freshman,” Jordan said. “He wrestled really well Friday night, and he made it to the semifinals of our tournament. He was just terrific the whole tournament.”

Fresh out of high school, Shull is still getting use to the pressures of wrestling several matches in a short period of time.

“I’m not used to the tournament mood,” Shull said. “I’m used to one match a day but [Saturday] I had one match and then another sometimes 10 minutes later. It takes a toll on my body and my legs. It was more of a learning weekend if anything. I really got to see what I needed to work on and stop making dumb high school mistakes.”

As with any youth-filled team, Jordan said, winning takes time and that is what it’s going to take for the Pack.

“The great thing about working with a group of kids this young is you really get to mold them throughout the year,” Jordan said. “You can really already see improvement and it’s dramatic.”