After losing to a particular opponent twice, most might have reservations about facing that person a third time.
Kevin Devoy Jr. didn’t have any hesitation when faced with that situation. Instead, he had a plan.
Devoy, a redshirt sophomore, faced Lehigh University’s Mason Beckman, a redshirt junior, for the 133-pound championship of the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA) in March. Devoy was seeded second while Beckman was the weight class’ top seed.
“My game plan this time was to not let him finish his shots and not let him get the takedowns,” Devoy says.
That strategy served Devoy well enough to get him through three overtime periods. He began the fourth with a “riding time” (the time he had control over Beckman in the match) advantage of 18 seconds.
“I knew I had to get out and then I’d be conference champion,” Devoy says. “I was exhausted, but he was breathing really heavy so I knew he was more tired. I didn’t have any stalling calls on me at the time so I knew I could back up and I wrestled defensive.”
Sure enough, Devoy prevailed and defeated the All-American Beckman to take home the first EIWA championship for Drexel.
“It was an awesome feeling,” Devoy says.
“It’s a great conference, one of the toughest in the country behind the Big Ten,” Devoy says. “There’s definitely a lot of depth in the conference. There are really no easy matches.”
As a team, Drexel finished sixth this year, an improvement on the 13th place the team achieved in 2014’s championships.
“Our team really showed up,” team coach Matt Azevedo says. “It was the best we had wrestled as a team all season long.”
The success at the EIWA Championships served as a springboard to the NCAA tournament. Devoy advanced to the quarterfinal round of the NCAA Championship and eventually lost in overtime to earn All-American honors.