Eastern’s pair of senior wrestlers couldn’t wrestle past the nation’s best at the NCAA championships in St. Louis.

Pat Dowty and Matt Veach wrestled their final matches of the year at the Saavis Center with hopes of becoming the first all-American wrestlers at Eastern since 1997. Dowty was wrestling in his third NCAA tournament in a row at 133 pounds, and this was Veach’s first appearance at the national tournament.

Dowty started the weekend-long tournament off right with 10-3 victory Thursday morning against Edinboro’s Jacob Gray. Veach wasn’t so lucky at 165-pounds when he was pinned in the first period by Michigan’s Pat Owen, who he had wrestled earlier in the year.

“He just got rolled through and taken to his back. That happens,” head coach Ralph McCausland said. “I told him he (would) just have to forget about it and move on.”

And Veach quickly did when he won his next two matches Thursday night in wrestle backs. Veach rolled through the first two rounds of wrestle backs with a 15-8 victory over Pittburgh’s Zach Doll and a 9-3 win over Illinois’ Ben Hay.

Dowty lost his Thursday night match with an unlucky draw to wrestle returning national champion Travis Lee of Cornell.

“Pat just couldn’t get things going and everything he did offensively Lee negated with his defense,” McCausland said. “But I told the guys we’re still here after the first day and it’s a level playing field.”

With that in mind, each of the wrestlers took the mat for what would end up being the last times in their careers. Dowty was matched against Virginia Tech’s David Hoffman on Friday morning. But couldn’t find his tempo on the way to a 13-6 loss.

“He has some early chances that he just didn’t capitalize on,” McCausland said.

Shortly after that Veach took the mat against Iowa’s Cole Pape, who he had wrestled earlier in the year.

Like Dowty, Veach couldn’t find his tempo in the second day of wrestling and lost 5-3.

“It’s unfortunate because they and I both know what they can do and it just didn’t happen,” McCausland.

“There’s no re-do’s to set the tone they want but that’s part of the sport.”

Despite the disappointment each of the wrestlers had after the weekend, they each had one of the greatest experiences you can have in wrestling, McCausland said.

“There’s eight mats with quality matches on all of them. It’s so loud the wrestlers can’t hear me from 10 steps away.” McCausland said.

“It’s a rush for any athlete.”