Sometimes surprises come in packages wrapped by grandma. And then there are the surprises that are less welcome — stale cookies, bad report cards or wrestling teams that come out of nowhere to upset the No. 5 team in the nation.
And now that surprise is coming to Northwestern.
The Wildcats (5-3) will host the 37 men from the Northern Illinois wrestling team at 7 p.m. tonight at Welsh-Ryan Arena. Since a Jan. 4 victory over No. 5 Ohio State, the Huskies (7-5) vaulted from unranked to the No. 15 team in the nation.
“Northern beat us last year, so we have to be ready to go,” NU coach Tim Cysewski said. “They feel that they’ve got a good team, and we feel we’ve got a good team. So it’s just a matter of match-ups — we have to be on top of our game.”
The Cats are coming back from a disappointing showing at the Wendy’s Duals last weekend, winning only one out of three matches.
“It’s going to be one of our first home meets of the quarter, so we want to start off in the right manner and get a nice solid win,” Cysewski said.
While eight or more Big Ten teams are consistently ranked in various Top-25 polls — making it one of the strongest wrestling conferences in the country — the Mid-Atlantic Conference — in which the Huskies finished second in 2002 — is also acclaimed for its tough competition.
The Huskies are led by three Top 25 wrestlers, including No. 17 freshman standout Josh Wooten, who may be the biggest obstacle to a Cats victory campaign.
Wooten will meet senior John Giacche in the 141-pound match. The wrestlers have met on two previous occasions, with the Husky taking Giacche both times.
“I’m pretty excited,” Giacche said. “I know that it’s going to take a good seven minutes to win.”
The senior is coming off two wins at the Wendy’s Duals on Jan. 12, and said he is pleased with his improvement.
“I definitely wrestled better than I had been,” he said. “It’s so frustrating to wrestle better and lose, but I definitely feel more comfortable with my performance.”
Sophomore Mike Kimberlin, who is on a six-match winning streak, also will be challenged by a ranked opponent. Kimberlin will meet senior Scott Owen, the reigning 2002 MAC wrestler of the year, ranked No. 2 at 157-pounds. Owen has a streak of his own, remaining undefeated for the past eight matches.
Kimberlin said the key to NU’s success is to concentrate on technique.
“If everyone wrestles (in the meets) like they did here at practice, we’d be fine,” he said. “We wouldn’t have lost any of those matches (in the Wendy’s Duals), because we compete so much down here — everyone wrestles tough — but when they get up there, they’re worried about winning and losing instead of just wrestling.”
Win or lose, Friday’s meet will give the Cats one last chance to plant a few surprises of their own before the start of their Big Ten season on Jan. 24.
“They’re not a Big Ten team, so we definitely want to represent and show them that we compete on a Big Ten level,” sophomore Tommy Vargas said.
N. Illinois at NU
7 p.m., today
Welsh-Ryan Arena
