The Northwestern wrestling team continued its dominance this year by posting three victories at the Buckeye Duals over the weekend in Columbus, Ohio.
The No. 21 ranked Wildcats (6-0) defeated unranked North Carolina-Greensboro, Drexel and Buffalo to remain undefeated in dual competition this year.
“I think we were pretty confident of being able to start off well this year the way the schedule is lined up,” assistant coach Tony Ersland said. “We definitely made the schedule to test the kids but we didn’t want it to be super tough early because we knew we were going to have a young team so we wanted to give them a lot of good matches as far as experience. By the time we get to Big Tens, we want them to be able to perform well.”
With the help of undefeated weekends from junior Matt Delguyd and redshirt freshmen Jake Herbert and Ryan Lang, the Cats defeated their opponents by an average of 15 points. The Cats also received strong performances from true freshmen Greg Hagel and Mike Tamillow, junior Dan Quintela and senior Mike Kimberlin, who each went 2-1 over the weekend.
“I think that’s why we’re having the success we are, because the team is well rounded from top to bottom,” Ersland said. “There’s a difference between being good in tournaments and being good in dual meets. You can have a few outstanding individuals score a lot of points for you in the tournament and still place high whereas in dual meets it requires consistency throughout your lineup.”
The Cats downed North Carolina-Greensboro 27-12. They followed that victory with a 24-12 win over Drexel and then beat Buffalo 29-9.
Lang had the most dominating performance when he earned a technical fall against North Carolina-Greensboro in NU’s first match of the weekend.
“(Lang’s) really started to pick up his intensity level throughout this week and he’s really starting to come around to form,” Ersland said. “It’s getting close to starting Big Tens and he’s really picked up his level of intensity, he’s shown a lot more of what he can really do.”
Lang is 6-0 in dual competition this year.
NU will look to continue it’s undefeated run in a dual against Eastern Illinois at home on Jan. 15 before starting its conference slate on Jan. 21 at Indiana. Ersland said he expects this weekend to be an opportunity for the team to work on improving before the start of Big Ten season.
“(Eastern Illinois) is another good opportunity for our kids to get match experience and to improve on what we’ve been working on as a team,” Ersland said . “When you get ready to go into Big Tens obviously the intensity goes up because the stakes go up. With a young group you try to tell them what’s coming down the road,. They’re a great group so long as they know what’s going on.”
Reach Paul Tenorio at [email protected]
