The No. 7 American University wrestling team travelled to College Park, Md., on Friday evening to take on No. 20 Maryland where the Eagles came up on a short end of a 23-14 decision.

Maryland got off to a quick start as Shane Gentry earned a tight 2-1 decision over Thomas Williams at 125 lbs. Geoffrey Alexander then earned a technical fall over AU's Chris Brienza and the Terps opened up an 8-0 lead after two bouts.

No. 9 Matt Mariacher got the Eagles on the scoreboard with a 7-4 decision over Frank Goodwin at 141 lbs. and Kevin Tao followed with a 12-4 major decision against Ben Dorsay to cut the Terps lead to 8-7.

In the first of three bouts between ranked opponents, No. 4 Ganbayar Sanjaa pushed the Eagles into the lead with an impressive 14-6 major decision against No. 16 Kyle John at 157 lbs. American lead, however, was shortlived as No. 2 Josh Asper recorded a technical fall against AU's Sean McCarty at 165 lbs. to give the Terps a 12-11 advantage.

Maryland won the next two bouts at 174 lbs. and 184 lbs. to take a 20-11 lead. At 174 lbs., No. 17 Jimmy Sheptock earned a technical fall against Phillip Barreiro and then Ty Snook registered an 8-3 decision over AU's Thomas Barreiro at 184 lbs.

At 197 lbs., No. 8 Daniel Mitchell made his first appearance of the season for American, although he came up on the short end of a 7-6 decision to No. 20 Christian Boley. Mitchell held a late lead, but a takedown by Boley with 45 seconds remaining proved to be the difference.

In the final bout of the night, No. 1 Ryan Flores earned his first victory as the top-ranked heavyweight with a 7-3 decision over No. 10 Spencer Myers. This marked a rematch of the NWCA All-Star Classic bout on November 21 where Flores posted an 11-2 major decision.

American will return to action next Saturday, December 10 with a dual at George Mason. The action will get underway from Fairfax, Va., at 7:30 p.m.