The Big Ten season began with mixed results for Northwestern over the weekend, as the Wildcats split their two road dual matches.
After putting up a fight against top-ranked Minnesota, but ultimately falling 24-11, the Cats picked up their first conference win of the season by beating No. 22 Wisconsin 24-15. NU is now 6-3 overall.
The 16th-ranked Cats had a massive challenge on their hands when they took on the Golden Gophers in Minneapolis. Minnesota had just dethroned Oklahoma State the previous weekend in the finals of the NWCA/Cliff Keen National Duals to take over the top spot in the nation. NU failed to place in the same tournament.
“Minnesota is just another good Big Ten team,” coach Tim Cysewski said. “We know they’re going to be a tough team to face no matter if they’re ranked first or not.”
Despite being at a clear disadvantage on paper, the Cats refused to give in and actually took an early 3-0 lead on the Gophers when senior John Velez defeated Minnesota junior Andrew Domingues at 125 pounds.
However, the Gophers roared back to win the next five weight classes. Of the five Minnesota wrestlers who put together the streak, all were ranked in the top 20 and four were ranked in the top 10. Senior Will Durkee, ranked 17th at 165 pounds, was the only ranked wrestler for NU who competed in those five divisions.
Facing an 18-3 deficit and in danger of being blown out, the Cats rallied together and made things respectable by bouncing back to win two of the last four divisions.
The highlight of the stretch was sophomore Jake Herbert’s resounding 13-3 victory over sophomore Gabriel Dretsch at 174 pounds. Herbert, ranked second in his weight class, dominated the eighth-ranked Dretsch on his way to running his win streak to 27.
The other NU victory came at 197 pounds as 11th-ranked senior Matt Delguyd took out sophomore Justin Bronson, 13-2.
In the heavyweight division, ninth-ranked sophomore Dustin Fox battled hard against Minnesota’s top-ranked junior Cole Konrad, but came up short by a score of 4-0.
After a day off, the Cats bounced back with a comeback win in Madison, Wis., against the Badgers.
This time, it was NU that fell behind early but stormed back with five consecutive victories to take control.
With the Cats behind 8-0 after two matches, Herbert got the squad going, pulling NU to within three with a technical fall victory over sophomore Mike Felling.
“We felt confident that if we wrestled well, we could get a victory,” Cysewski said. “We dropped those first two matches but Jake came out and stopped the bleeding to get us back on track.”
NU took the lead when 10th-ranked sophomore Mike Tamillow scored a 9-0 victory over freshman Justin Peterson at 184 pounds. The Cats would never relinquish their advantage, adding to their lead with wins from Delguyd, Fox and Velez.
NU also welcomed the return of sophomore Ryan Lang, ranked sixth at 141 pounds. Lang, who had missed the team’s last four competitions due to injury, came back with a vengeance, taking out senior Ed Gutnik 8-1.
“Lang being back in the lineup gave us a boost,” Cysewski said. “When we have our best guys in there we have a shot to beat anyone, anywhere, anytime.”
Reach Andrew Simon at [email protected].
