After taking care of his enormous electrical engineering workload for the week, John Velez doesn’t even have the comfort of looking forward to a relaxing weekend.
The red-shirt freshman will begin his first Big Ten campaign with a bang against two of the best wrestlers in the nation when the Wildcats charge into their conference season this weekend. Northwestern (5-4) hosts No. 15 Michigan State (2-4) at 7 p.m. Friday in Welsh-Ryan Arena before welcoming No. 18 Wisconsin (8-0) at 3 p.m. Sunday.
First up for the 125-pound Velez is fellow red-shirt freshman Nick Simmons — one of the most acclaimed high school wrestlers of all time. In high school, Simmons posted a 219-0 record with 193 pins. Despite his red-shirt status in 2001-02, Simmons went 25-3 in open tournaments with 12 pins.
The two met at the Midlands Tournament, held Dec. 29 at NU, and though Velez was within a point of the Spartan, Simmons took the match and went on to place third at the prestigious tournament.
“I know he’s a really good kid and he’s really tricky with some of his moves — if you get put in a bad position, he will really put it to you,” Velez said. “Endurance is a big issue — I’m usually really strong in third period, and hopefully by then the guy will be really tired, so that is when I can get the match.”
After Velez has time to catch his breath, he will take on No. 13 Tony Black of Wisconsin. The junior is part of a Badgers squad that finished its nonconference season with an untarnished record, including early season wins over No. 17 Northern Iowa and No. 15 Northern Illinois — a team that NU lost to on Jan. 17, 27-6.
“We want to dominate people on their feet,” NU coach Tim Cysewski said. “Last week we did a good job of that, but we weren’t scoring any points.”
The Badgers have to make a stop in Iowa City to take on No. 2 Iowa on Friday. The Hawkeyes have already defeated several Top-10 teams, including No. 3 Minnesota and No. 5 Ohio State, and the Badgers may be a bit broken down by Iowa’s nine Top-25 wrestlers before they make their way to Evanston.
The Spartans are riding in on the success of an upset over No. 4 Cornell at the National Duals Jan. 18. Following that victory, Michigan State nearly beat Ohio State and Minnesota.
But Michigan State might come into Friday’s match with an extra incentive for winning — a victory against NU would thrust Spartan coach Tom Minkel into the record books as the third Michigan State wrestling coach to notch 100 wins.
“I’d like to think that they are going to wait until a later weekend to make that happen,” Cysewski said.
Michigan State, Wisconsin at NU
Friday, Sunday
Welsh-Ryan Arena
