Tuesday’s DAILY gave the wrong ranking for wrestler Jake Herber. The sophomore is ranked No. 2, according to the USA Today/NWCA coaches’ poll.
The Daily regrets these errors.
Facing an Eastern Illinois team it had beaten 41-3 last season, No. 13 Northwestern matched that strong performance Sunday, defeating the Panthers 35-13 in Charleston, Ill. The Wildcats improved their dual meet record to 4-0 and dropped Eastern Illinois to 1-3.
Not only did the Cats have the advantage on paper, sending out five ranked wrestlers to the Panthers’ one, but they were also coming off more than a week of rest. The Panthers had been in action the day before, losing to No. 9 Missouri, 38-6. This presented coach Tim Cysewski with the task of not letting his team look past its opponent.
“Any time you wrestle an inter-state team, you have to be ready,” Cysewski said. “You know they’re going to come out with a different attitude than you. They’re going to say that if they can keep it close, that’s a feather in their cap. We just had to not wrestle down a level and stay at a Big Ten level instead.”
The most anticipated match of the day was in the 174-pound division between NU’s third-ranked sophomore Jake Herbert and Eastern Illinois’ 13th-ranked junior Kenny Robertson. Last season, Herbert beat Robertson by just one point.
This season’s battle proved to be a bit anticlimactic. Herbert said he noticed Robertson was sitting on his backside a lot when the two scrambled and took advantage by lifting his opponent’s legs in the air and getting him on his back. This led to a pin at 4:15 that improved Herbert to 17-0 for the season. Overall, Herbert has won his last 23 bouts dating back to last season.
“I just want to keep it going,” Herbert said. “The wins in the regular season aren’t a big deal. All that matters is getting those five wins in March (at the NCAA Championships), when it counts.”
But Herbert didn’t lead the Cats to victory single-handedly, as NU won seven of 10 weight classes. One of its three losses came as a result of senior Dan Quintela having to forfeit at 133 pounds due to illness. In the other two losses, NU had to employ back-ups due to injuries to sophomores Ryan Lang (141 pounds) and Mike Tamillow (184 pounds). Both are expected to be ready for the squad’s next match.
Sophomore Greg Hagel jumpstarted the Cats with a dominant performance at 157 pounds in the first bout of the day. Facing Eastern Illinois freshman Thomas Johnson, Hagel took a 17-1 lead to earn the victory by technical fall at 6:46 and improve his record this season to 14-5.
Sophomore Dustin Fox, ranked 10th in the country at 285 pounds, won a 5-0 decision against Eastern Illinois junior Danny Perez. NU junior Jimmy Kim pulled out a 5-3 decision over freshman Chris Smith in the 149-pound division.
Despite some easy victories, the Cats also almost suffered a major upset at 197 pounds. 10th-ranked senior Matt Delguyd got all he could handle from Terron Williams, Eastern Illinois’ unranked freshman. Williams notched an early takedown, getting the home crowd involved, and the bout went into overtime locked in a 3-3 tie. Delguyd caught a break and earned a victory by medical default as Williams suffered a knee injury.
“(Williams) was pretty decent,” Cysewski said. “Matt got off to a slow start and had to fight from behind a little bit but he did.”
Reach Andrew Simon at [email protected].
