As the Northwestern wrestling team did its sprinting drills in practice Monday, NU coach Tim Cysewski preached the importance of consistency.
“You can’t have a bad day down here — not anymore!” he shouted.
But after the Wildcats’ 35-12 loss to No. 8 Michigan (8-4, 3-0 Big Ten) on Feb. 1 in Ann Arbor, their days can’t get much worse.
Plagued by injuries, sickness and inconsistency, the Cats (5-7, 0-3) dropped their fourth consecutive meet and remain winless in the Big Ten this season.
“The frustrating part right now is we are being inconsistent,” Cysewski said. “Every week there is somebody different wrestling well, but not everybody is on the same page right now.”
John Velez, at 125 pounds, was struck down with food poisoning Wednesday night and was not a full strength when he lost a major decision to No. 5 A.J. Grant. In the heavyweight class, Mike Little dislocated his elbow — an injury that Cysewski predicted would sideline Little for the rest of the season. NU forfeited a match because their 174-pounder, junior Andrew Curran, had not yet fully recovered from this knee surgery earlier this season.
And to top off the Cats’ misfortune, the rest of the Cats just weren’t able to take down the Wolverines — six of whom are ranked in the top 20 nationally.
“Michigan is a really good team, and it was tough to score points and I think that frustrated a lot of guys,” senior John Giacche said.
The only wins for NU came from seniors Jason Erwinski at 165 — who has won eight of his past 10 matches — and Brendan Curran at 184.
“Some guys wrestled really, really well,” Curran said. “Then again, some people started wrestling well, but just didn’t finish the match — and that’s what cost us the meet.”
The Cats have just a few days before they take on No. 10 Illinois and two-time defending national champion No. 4 Minnesota this weekend.
“We are putting together some really great spurts,” Giacche said, “but the difference is really that the best guys in the country are putting together seven minutes of that.”
