SMYRNA, Tennessee – The University of Maryland Eastern Shore Hawks capped its second weekend in a row in Smyrna with an 18th place finish in the Music City Classic.
For the weekend, the Hawks finished a cumulative 8-4 while entering Sunday's championship bracket in 17th place after recording a total pinfall of 9,100 while averaging 182 across 10 total games.
UMES finished Day 1 on a 3-2 mark in five five-game Baker matches with a pinfall total of 4,505. The Hawks opened the tournament with a 935-925 win against Vanderbilt before following up with a 888-874 win against Louisiana Tech. While the Hawks dropped a 975-900 match against Newman, they followed up with a 881-597 win against Illinois Wesleyan. The team finished up with a close loss to Stephen F. Austin, 926-901.
The Hawks closed Day 1 averaging 180.2 per game while sitting in 18th out of 31 teams.
Day 2 saw the Hawks finish the day in 17th while going 4-1 in five traditional matches with a pinfall of 4,595. UMES opened up the day with a 976-868 win against Belmont Abbey College with Aaliyah Friend posting a team-high score of 238. The Hawks edged out Lewis in the second matchup with a closely contested 911-905 match where Gabriella Ochoa Hubbard eclipsed the 200-pin mark with a 202.
The Hawks' third matchup saw the Hawks drop a 972-839 matchup against Emmanuel despite Brooke Driver's team-high 224. UMES rebounded in the fourth matchup against Wisconsin-Whitewater with a 907-899 win as Driver posted a team-high 215. Closing out Saturday, UMES notched a 962-811 win against Aurora with three Hawks breaking the 200-pin mark with Driver recording a 237, Ara Pitts a 210 and Ochoa Hubbard a 207.
Through Sunday's final bracket, UMES earned an opening win against Wisconsin-Whitewater, 4-0, in a best-of-seven Baker match before dropping a 4-3 matchup against Fairleigh Dickinson to finish 18th in the tournament.
Driver posted a team-high 1,241 pinfall total with an average of 206.83 to finish 14th individually. Ochoa Hubbard finished with a pinfall total of 1,126 while averaging 187.67 and Friend had the next highest pinfall total for UMES with 1,045 while averaging 174.17. Mariane Almeida totaled 860 pins across five games with an average of 172 while Pitts averaged 182.75 across four games with a pinfall total of 731. Mariana Santos Rivero averaged 167.67 across three games with a pinfall of 503.
Next up the Hawks will return to head to Raleigh, North Carolina, for the MEAC Championship from March 21-23. UMES is the defending MEAC tournament champion enters this year's iteration as the No. 2 seed after going 11-3 across the two MEAC tournaments this season.
