Panthers head wrestling coach Ralph McCausland is going through what he calls the “frustration period” of this season due to the numerous injuries.

“In over 20 years of coaching wrestling, I’ve never seen this many injuries in this short of time,” McCausland said.

Eastern went into their weekend matches with Central Oklahoma and SIU-Edwardsville simply trying to put a full squad on the road.

“We had four key guys out of the lineup and I commend the guys that wrestled because they were thrown in there with no reservations,” McCausland said.

Eastern opened the day by losing to Central Oklahoma 41-7 with the only bright spot being senior Matt Veach defeating the 2002 I-AA national champion Shawn Silvis 3-1 in overtime.

“Being one of our only upperclassmen, he’s had to shoulder a lot of the burden but he handled it well,” McCausland said.

Senior Frank DeFilippis defeated J.B. Shanks 16-2 in his first match since coming off his injury.

The Panthers bounced back to defeat SIU-Edwardsville 26-18 in a closer match that they would’ve hope for.

The Panthers won two of the three matches where the margin of victory was a single point. Veach won convincingly 20-8 Sophomore Jim Kassner won 11-1 at 197 pounds to seal the victory because Eastern realized it was going to be forced to forfeit the heavyweight match.

“We had a second heavyweight ready to wrestle this weekend, but he got hurt on Wednesday,” McCausland said.

Eastern is looking forward to having the week off before they compete at home for the final time this season against Missouri Feb. 2.

“The key is going to be getting these guys healthy before the NCAA regional, but if everything goes well, we should get everybody back soon,” McCausland said.

The Panthers have been waiting for almost a month to receive the services of junior Pat Dowty at the 133 pound level and McCausland has hinted that Dowty will suit up against the Tigers.

The Panthers have four meets until they host the NCAA West Regional in Lantz Arena.