NWCA National Duals 2016 Results: Quarterfinal, Semifinal, Final Recap Tracker

The NWCA National Duals championship match isn't until Sunday, but Saturday's battle between the Rutgers Scarlet Knights and Lehigh Mountain Hawks had the feeling of a championship match.

In the end, the No. 13 Scarlet Knights edged out the No. 7 Mountain Hawks, 18-15, thanks to fifth-year senior Billy Smith's win over Max Wessell in the heavyweight bout in double overtime.

Approximately 2,500 fans packed the Rutgers Athletic Center to see a rivalry that the Mountain Hawks have dominated. Before Smith pulled off an incredible win in 2013, Rutgers hadn't beaten Lehigh in 63 years, per Keith Sargeant of NJ Advance Media.

Rutgers coach Scott Goodale was appreciative of the fans who showed up for the match:

In its final event before the Big Ten Championships, Rutgers fell behind early by losing the first two matches. Lehigh's Darian Cruz, the No. 13 wrestler in the 125-pound division, defeated Sean McCabe, 15-7. Mason Beckman followed by defeating Josh Patrick, 19-7.

Rutgers stormed back and won the next five matches, triggered by Anthony Ashnault's performance in his 141-pound match against Randy Cruz. Ashnault recorded a couple of takedowns to win 9-2. Convincing victories by Tyson Dippery (6-0 vs. Ian Brown) and Phil Bakuckas (9-2 vs. Gordon Wolf) gave the Scarlet Knights a 15-8 lead with three bouts left, per Rutgers Wrestling:

If not for John Bolich's convincing 11-0 victory over Hayden Hrymack in the 197-pound division, Lehigh might not have had a chance at the end. Coupled with Nathaniel Brown's 3-2 win over Nicholas Gravina, the Mountain Hawks still had life heading into the heavyweight fight, as those two Lehigh wins tied the match at 15-15.

But in a battle of the 13th- and 14th-ranked heavyweights in the nation, Smith scored a reversal on Wessell early in the second overtime period to secure a 3-2 win and give Rutgers momentum heading into the conference tournament.

Rutgers Wrestling captured an image of Smith celebrating after the match concluded:

The NWCA National Duals changed the format from a year ago. The top Big Ten team, the No. 1 Penn State Nittany Lions, will take on the highest-ranked non-Big Ten team, the No. 2 Oklahoma State Cowboys, in the championship Sunday.

Although it didn't secure a championship for Rutgers, Saturday's win over Lehigh was a monumental feat for the program. Smith will graduate this year as someone who made history at Rutgers after winning twice over Lehigh. The Mountain Hawks will now prepare for the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association Championships after the crushing loss.

Post-Match Reaction

Knowing how evenly matched the two programs are, Goodale thought the match would come down to his senior heavyweight.

"We knew it would come down to Billy, and like I've said before I feel very, very confident in this guy,'' Goodale said, per Sargeant. "On many occasions in this arena it's come down to Billy and he's found a way to win in big [spots]. That's as big of a spot as you're going to get against a really, really good kid.''

From where Smith was as a freshman to where he is now, he feels the program has come full circle, especially against Lehigh, per ScarletKnights.com:

"

Whenever you beat a team like Lehigh, it’s more than them being ranked No. 6. Honestly that doesn’t really mean much. But it’s more to the fact that they’re a winning tradition. You have teams like that, and they almost look down upon Rutgers … I’m proud to be the foundation and see this program grow in a bigger direction. There’s so much more that needs to be done. This is just the beginning and you’ll see that in two weeks or so.

"

Lehigh coach Pat Santoro thought reversals were the reason why the Mountain Hawks came up short Saturday.

"We got beat in one of our strengths this year, which is on the mat," Santoro said, per LehighSports.com. "We gave up reversals. We gave up riding time. When you give up riding time it's really hard to win a match. I was disappointed with that. We were looking for reversals too much and on top we were hanging on instead of going after the turns."

Rankings courtesy of InterMatWrestle.com. Follow Danny Webster on Twitter, @DannyWebster21.