Defending Big Ten champion Iowa emphatically welcomed Northwestern into conference play with a 45-3 rout.
Now the Wildcats must regroup to muster a challenge for today’s matchup in Champaign against No. 5 Illinois.
“Wrestling Iowa sets the bar pretty high,” NU coach Tim Cysewski said. “The kids know what they have to do to get better. Illinois will be another difficult test.”
The schedule makers are throwing the kitchen sink at NU early on — the undefeated Fighting Illini are anything but pushovers.
The Illini (6-0) slaughtered the depleted Cats a year ago, 36-3, en route to a second-place finish in the Big Ten.
This year, NU (3-6, 0-1 Big Ten) has been plagued by injuries and forced to turn to its youth.
To make matters worse, the Cats will see a lot of familiar faces: Griff Powell, Ben King, Nate Patrick, Pat Quirk and John Lockhart.
All five are Illinois residents who weren’t interested in joining the Cats program and have gone on to compile great collegiate résumés. Four are currently ranked in the top 10, and their combined record this year is 82-20.
Factor in Adam Tirapelle, who is No. 1 in the 149-pound weight class with a 16-0 record, and it’s clear the Illini are loaded with proven talent.
“Illinois is one of the (most) talented teams in the Big Ten and in the country,” said Ryan Cumbee, who has the daunting task of wrestling Tirapelle. “They have a lot of guys on their roster and always end up putting a top guy out there.”
Today’s matchup has an interesting dynamic in the top and bottom weight classes. In the lighter classes, NU’s top talent takes on the Illini’s weaker wrestlers. In the heavier classes, the Illini’s strength will confront NU’s glaring weakness.
If the Cats are to be competitive with Illinois, they will need victories from their best wrestlers — Josh Ballard, Jason Erwinski and Josh Saul.
“Those are three matches that we look to do pretty well in,” Cysewski said. “We’ve wrestled well there all year long.”
Ballard and Erwinski will wrestle two of the three unranked Illini in the lineup. Cysewski said that Ballard, a freshman, has an advantage over senior Mike Castillo based on their performances against common opponents. Erwinski leads NU in pins, but will try to avenge his worst loss of the season, a 24-10 defeat against Iowa last week.
Saul has a scheduled rematch against No. 5 Lockhart, who needed overtime last year to notch a 3-1 victory over the NU heavyweight.
“Josh outwrestled the kid last year,” Cysewski said. “Josh is wrestling great this year, and the Illinois kid isn’t.”
The individual motivation for NU is tremendous: A win in the Big Ten will raise eyebrows around the country, and NU’s wrestlers are itching for recognition.
Cumbee in particular is a clear underdog in his matchup with Tirapelle, but Cysewski wants to see his freshman compete with the defending Big Ten champion. Cumbee is eager to continue his promising season and take to the mat.
“It’s always good to wrestle the best in the country — there’s no better out there,” Cumbee said. “I have absolutely nothing to lose because no one is expecting me to win.”
The intrastate rivalry merely intensifies the matchup because the scouting reports are precise and the players know one another from high school tournaments.
Cysewski said the Cats and the Illini target “different clientele” and have few recruiting battles due to the schools’ vastly different academic standards.
“We’re a private school, they’re a state school,” he said. “They have a larger population and larger roster than us, but they don’t work harder than us.”
For Cumbee, it’s been difficult wrestling on a young team in turmoil while his Illini friends are challenging for the Big Ten title. What the Cats need, he said, is time.
“Technically we’re right there with (Illinois),” Cumbee said. “Endurance, we’re right there with them. The biggest thing is for everyone to believe they can win.”
