The Wildcats have almost reached the end of the long and hazardous road through the conference season, but before the Big Ten championships, they’ll make one more stop tonight when No. 17 Indiana comes to Welsh-Ryan Arena.
Even before the match starts, the No. 13 Cats (9-5, 4-3 Big Ten) will have already secured an impressive Big Ten season. In a historic context, the four victories are a monumental achievement. Before last season’s two conference wins, the Cats hadn’t won in the Big Ten for five years.
NU is coming off a tough 20-16 loss at No. 9 Iowa last Sunday and would like to turn things around against the Hoosiers (11-4, 2-4).
“You always want to go in and win your last match of the season,” coach Tim Cysewski said. “We want to do that both as individuals and as a team.”
Indiana has won the last seven matches against NU. Last season, the Hoosiers topped the Cats 22-14 after getting off to a 19-4 advantage.
However, things are different this season in Evanston. The Cats have defeated three ranked Big Ten squads, including then-No. 3 Illinois. Meanwhile, the Hoosiers are 2-4 in the Big Ten, with their only victories coming against Ohio State and Purdue, the conference’s only two unranked teams.
The Cats also feature seven ranked wrestlers to the Hoosiers’ four and will wrestle at home, where they are 3-0 in the Big Ten this season.
That’s not to say the match can’t go either way. The Hoosiers are led by senior Joe Dubuque, who is the defending NCAA champion at 125 pounds and is currently ranked first in the weight class with an 18-0 record. He will be challenged by seventh-ranked senior John Velez, who has already beaten Illinois senior Kyle Ott, who was ranked third at the time.
The Cats will rally behind sophomore Jake Herbert, who is ranked second at 174 pounds. Herbert will try to extend his 33-match winning streak, the second longest active streak in the nation, against sophomore Marc Bennett.
There also figure to be hotly contested battles at several other weight classes, including 197 pounds, where 12th-ranked NU senior Matt Delguyd will clash with 10th-ranked Indiana senior Brady Richardson.
“It will be about who’s ready to win the tough matches,” Cysewski said. “It’s just going to be another one of those slugfests.”
Reach Andrew Simon at [email protected].
