For Northwestern wrestlers Ryan Kane and John Giacche, the NCAA wrestling championships March 21-23 in Albany, N.Y., were a challenging experience but also one that left them in anticipation of next season.

Kane, a 165-pounder, lost on the first day of competition to fifth-seeded Josh Henson of Pennsylvania by technical fall, 17-2. Kane’s day didn’t improve, as he dropped his consolation match 6-4 to Pat O’Donnell of Harvard, eliminating the NU sophomore from competition.

Giacche fared slightly better than his counterpart by winning his first-round match 11-4 against Rob Becker of George Mason. He dropped his next match 3-2 to Northern Iowa’s Dylan Young and was then eliminated with an 8-3 loss to Luke Moffitt of Iowa.

Giacche had mixed feelings about the tournament.

“Personally I did well,” Giacche said. “A couple of matches were pretty frustrating. I thought I outwrestled (Young) but I didn’t finish a couple of shots.”

Giacche and Kane were the only two Wildcats at the competition and represent a wrestling program on the rise. NU did not send anybody to the championships last year.

With the season over, Giacche is looking forward to next year.

“A lot of guys are showing improvement,” Giacche said. “People are starting to realize how hard you have to work. Young guys like (freshman Tommy) Vargas and (freshman Mike) Kimberlin are showing a lot of potential.”

Mainly because of the difficulty of Big Ten wrestling, NU finished last in the conference tournament.

Giacche led the team with a 29-12 mark while wrestling for the first time at 141 pounds. Kane wasn’t far behind at 28-13.