In Friday’s Big Ten opener at Purdue, the Northwestern wrestling team will have a chance to surpass its entire 2001 conference win total.
The Wildcats went 0-8 in the Big Ten last season.
But team captain John Giacche said he is focused on earning better seeds for the Big Ten championships, held March 9-10 in Champaign.
“Individually, if we’re beating the guys in the dual meets, it will help us in our seeds in the Big Ten tournament,” Giacche said.
NU will travel to West Lafayette, Ind., to take on the No. 21 Boilermakers at 6 p.m. today. Following a day of rest, the Cats will grapple with Northern Illinois in De Kalb, on Sunday at 2 p.m.
Although Purdue (10-1) defeated the Cats 26-9 in Evanston last year, NU enters the weekend with high hopes.
“We’ll definitely do better than last year,” Giacche said. “The guys have really stepped up in the last couple of meets.”
The Cats went 3-0 last weekend at the Wendy’s Duals in Ashland, Ohio, defeating Garder-Webb, Tennessee-Chattanooga and host Ashland. They enter the weekend’s events on a four-match winning streak.
The meet will be a tough one for the Cats (7-4) because Purdue returned four NCAA qualifiers this season and has four individuals ranked in InterMat’s top 20 in their weight classes. But NU is optimistic about its chances.
“If things go our way, we’ll have a good weekend,” Giacche said.
NU head coach Tim Cysewski said the Cats should be very competitive with the Boilermakers this year.
“Purdue is probably going to come down to who wins the last match,” Cysewski said. “There are going to be some real tough matches up and down the line.”
Looking ahead to Northern Illinois, Cysewski underlined the importance of competing with intrastate rivals.
“They’ve got a good club this year,” Cysewski said. “They’re capable of beating people, so we have to be prepared. We can’t let there be any letdowns.”
Northern Illinois, which has already defeated Indiana this season, will be looking for its second win against a Big Ten team.
The Huskies and Cats finished their 2001 meeting deadlocked in an 18-18 tie, leaving this year’s contest up for grabs. NU will be taking on two nationally ranked Huskies in the dual.
“They’ve got a tough lineup, but we match up well,” Giacche said.
Cysewski said that despite a couple of “knick-knacks,” the team is healthy, and he expects it to be strong for the weekend meets.
“We’ve had three weeks of good practices,” the coach said. “Last week showed a real improvement, so we expect to keep that going this weekend.”
And the Cats intend to do well, despite the tough competition. The Big Ten is traditionally the best conference in the nation, so NU is looking to get the season off to a strong start.
“It’s the Big Ten season,” the coach said. “Anything can happen.”
