NEW LONDON, Conn. --

Under the spotlights in historic Billard Gymnasium, and with a full crowd, Coast Guard handed archrival Merchant Marine a commanding defeat by the score of 40-3. This is the seventh consecutive time that the Bears have defeated KP, a streak dating back to 2018. For the Mariners, they drop to 2-2 on the season. They will travel to the Nassau Open, hosted by Nassau Community College on Saturday December 13th.

Coast Guard jumped out early and often, ensuring that Merchant Marine never had a chance. Nikko Beato(San Diego, CA) made his return to the mat in spectacular fashion to start the night with a 19-5 tech fall victory to give his Bears an early 5-0 lead. After Beato, the freshman 133 pounder Marvin Armistead(Reading, PA) brought the already lively Coast Guard crowd into a frenzy with a pin to open up a commanding 11-0 advantage. 141 Dom Moyer(Milford, PA) and 149 Nathan Fitt(Branchville, NJ) with dominating tech victories of their own Moyer's by a score of 17-2 and Fitt 16-1. For Fitt, his victory was the loudest, and chippiest of the night. After going up by 15 to earn the tech fall, the CGA crowd erupted behind their senior captain.

After 157 Jacob Woodburn(Greensboro, NC) lost a hard-fought 5-4 decision, 165 Landon Kearns(East Brunswick, NJ) got the Bears back in the points with a tight, 4-2 decision win that came down to the wire. 

After two straight bouts that went down to the wire, 174 freshman Mason Gourley(Clarion, PA) gave the Bears another comfortable win with a 17-2 tech fall win. Gourley having his hand lifted in celebration by the referee prompted the Coast Guard fans to break into a "He's a Freshman!" chant that echoed throughout the raucous Billard Hall. 184 Gabriel Monroe(Kirkwood, NY) and 197 Kevin Pandorf(Elmer, NJ) closed out the night with decision wins before Carl DiGiorgio(Doylestown, PA) got to walk out and take a victory lap with a forfeit win at 285.

After the win, the Bears will get nearly a month off before they next step on the mat, with the January 9-10 Manganaro Duals, hosted by Ursinus College. The victory also brings Coast Guard within one win of Merchant Marine in the 2025-26 Superintendent's Trophy standings with KP now leading just 4-3-1.