Ryan Kane is counting on his father to help him gain an edge over the competition this weekend.

“My dad is a super wrestling fanatic,” the 165-pound junior said. “He keeps track of (my opponents’) stats and different guys’ scores … which boosts my confidence.”

Kane – with his dad’s help – has become a major part of Northwestern’s improvement heading into this weekend’s matches at Eastern Illinois and at the Wendy’s Duals in Ashland, Ohio.

He recently posted victories over competition from Princeton, Wisconsin-Parkside and Stanford at the Northwestern Duals and the Lone Star Duals.

He may even have wrestled himself into All-America contention.

“I’ve been working on putting the whole match together this year,” Kane said. “There were matches last year when I wrestled really well and then had one or two bad minutes, and that killed me.”

While Kane has proven himself on the mat, a host of events against nonconference competitors during the past several weeks has tested his teammates. Since Dec. 8, the Cats have achieved mixed results, beating Princeton and Eastern Michigan at the Northwestern Duals but faltering in the Midlands Championships and the Lone Star Duals.

NU hopes to regain momentum as it wraps up its nonconference season this weekend. The team is looking to improve on its 3-4 record against a balanced Panthers squad, said head coach Tim Cysewski.

“Eastern Illinois is a big test for us,” Cysewski said. “They’re a Division I school, they’re a state school, they look at us as a big-time match, and they want to knock us off.”

Senior Jason Erwinski, who returned from a knee injury last week with a victory in the Lone Star Duals, will try to continue his recovery against the Panthers.

“I feel good about Jason,” Cysewski said. “He wrestled three times last week without much preparation, and this week he’s feeling much more confident in his ability.”

The meet will also offer several freshmen the opportunity to hone their skills. First-year wrestlers Mike Kimberlin and Tommy Vargas will see action in the 157- and 133-pound weight classes, respectively.

In addition, All-America candidate John Giacchi will have the opportunity to improve upon his 15-5 individual record in the 141-pound weight class.

After competing at Eastern Illinois today, the Cats travel to Ashland for the rest of the weekend, where they will face Gardner-Webb, Tennessee-Chattanooga and host Ashland.

Ashland, which sports a top-5 ranking in Division II, may prove to be the most substantial competition. Over the past three years, Eagles has defeated several Big Ten opponents, including Ohio State.

“You need to be careful with all of these teams,” Cysewski said. “They want to beat a Big Ten school individually or as a team.”

NU fell to a similar Division-II team on Dec. 8 when Wisconsin-Parkside defeated the Cats at Welsh-Ryan Arena.

According to Cysewski, however, Kane and the rest of the wrestlers have shown marked improvement in practice since last month, and they should be ready for this weekend’s competition.

It will be NU’s last dry run before Big Ten competiton begins next week at Purdue.

“The national champion and the All-Americans will come from the Big Ten,” Cysewski said.

“When you wrestle those teams, you want to bring your A-game, and that’s what we plan to do.”