Northwestern and Missouri faced early trips home from last weekend’s NWCA/Cliff Keen National Duals after each team lost its first match, pitting them against each other in the consolation bracket.
As their bout neared its end, NU sophomore John Schoen defeated 11th-ranked Brent Haynes 4-2 to put the Wildcats up 18-17 and end the match. Unfortunately for Schoen and his teammates, it wasn’t the Cats who were moving on.
The Cats (2-5-1) forfeited the final weight division after Schoen won the 197-pound weight class, giving the No. 17 Tigers six points and a 23-17 victory. NU recently lost heavyweight Ben Kuhar for the season due to injury, which meant the Cats had to work around ceding the Tigers six automatic points in the last of the 10 individual matches. NU also lost one point for unsportsmanlike conduct after Schoen and Haynes began shoving after their match.
“We knew we’d be going in without a heavyweight, but we just needed one more match to get into the next round,” senior Eric Metzler (133) said. “Johnny (Schoen) put it out of his mind that his match didn’t matter, but in the end you can only control what you can control.”
The loss sent the Cats home empty-handed from the prestigious tournament in Cedar Falls, Iowa, for the second straight year. A 28-12 loss to No. 6 Central Michigan earlier in the day put NU in the elimination match against Missouri.
“It was really emotional against Missouri,” Schoen said. “Giving up six points right after (my win) was disappointing. We did as much as we could to win, and if we had Ben (Kuhar) we would have won that dual. But we’ve got to take positives away from what we did.”
Despite both losses NU competed strongly in a tournament that aims to attract the top 16 teams in the country. Schoen (197) and junior Andrew Nadhir (149) each went 2-0 against the Chippewas and Tigers after going 0-2 in last year’s tournament.
“Andrew did a great job and wrestled strong, and Schoen wrestled very well and is gaining a lot of confidence,” coach Tim Cysewski said. “Kevin Bialka (157) is showing a lot of promise also-every week he is getting better and better-especially as a true freshman, and Eric Metzler was very good in his second match. We showed a lot more improvement in attitude and intensity.”
The Cats were more aggressive in Iowa following their performance two weeks ago at the Midlands Championships, where they finished 31st out of 54 teams. “At Midlands nobody was really ready to wrestle,” Schoen said. “This weekend a lot of us wrestled nationally ranked opponents, and I think everyone was mentally prepared, which was something we lacked at Midlands.”
While the Cats were aided by the strong performances of Metzler and Bialka, who each went 1-1 over the weekend, Nadhir (149) and Schoen (197) continued to be the backbone of their success. The former-ranked 17th in the nation-earned four points via major decision win over Central Michigan’s Justin McDermitt in the first match before gaining another six by pinning Missouri’s Brandon Wiest in the second. Schoen received a technical fall (five points) over Central Michigan’s Raylen Davis before overcoming Haynes in the second match.
Perhaps the most promising sign for Cysewski is that his young team has been progressing steadily as the season has worn on. NU has lost multiple players to injury and has only one senior starter in Metzler.
“We wrestled much better and much more intensely than Midlands, and it showed in some of the outcomes,” Cysewski said. “They are a very young team and are improving tremendously week by week. It’s fun to watch, but we’re still not where we want to be.”[email protected]
