A bewildered Tim Cysewski looked around Welsh-Ryan arena on Saturday during the match against Missouri Baptist when he heard clapping and congratulations from his team and spectators.
The Northwestern wrestling coach was in mid-conversation with one of his wrestlers and wasn’t even aware that he had just secured his 100th career win at NU. The competition wasn’t over yet, but there were not enough matches left for Missouri Baptist to take the lead. The Wildcats had already taken seven of the evening’s 10 matches and they went on to win by a final score of 33-6.
Though Cysewski (100-136-5) said he was proud of his record, his attention was elsewhere.
“Dual meet wins are great,” Cysewski said. “But I’m here to make sure my guys are ready for Big Tens and Nationals. We want some Big Ten wins now.”
For the coach the milestone was overshadowed by NU’s two Big Ten losses at home this weekend.
The Cats (9-4, 0-3 Big Ten) lost to Purdue 20-19 Friday. Cysewski said he hoped his team would be fired up against Indiana on Saturday after falling to the Boilermakers. But the Cats couldn’t recover against the Hoosiers and lost 19-12.
“We got off to a slow start,” Cysewski said. “We weren’t inspired at heavyweight, and that set the tune for the rest of the dual.”
Sophomore Matt Delguyd (197 pounds) said he didn’t let his disappointment from the Purdue match affect his performance against Indiana.
“It fueled me,” Delguyd said. “The guys tried to use (the loss) to break our winless streak.”
Delguyd, freshman Nick Hayes (165 pounds) and junior Mike Kimberlin (157 pounds) were the only Cats to win against both the Boilermakers and the Hoosiers. Hayes is the only NU wrestler who is 3-0 in the Big Ten.
At 5 feet 11, Hayes towered 4 inches over Indiana’s Nathan McMillan. This height advantage, plus Hayes’ ability to dominate his opponent when on top, led him to his third conference win.
“Once I get on top, I wear him out,” Hayes said. “I have a lot of strength when I’m on top. I wrap them up and suck the life out of them.”
Kimberlin was the only member of the squad to win last season against both Purdue and Indiana. Although he repeated this feat, he said he felt lethargic and should have wrestled better this weekend.
“I wasn’t wrestling like my usual self,” Kimberlin said. “I think I could have put a lot more points on the board.”
Kimberlin won 4-3 over Purdue’s Brad Harper and 3-2 over Indiana’s Matt Cooper. He said that even though the team wrestled great this weekend, it wasn’t enough.
“We’ve always been able to get close,” Kimberlin said. “We need to get over that hump.”
