In the midst of a season marred by disappointing near-wins and blowout losses, Northwestern finds itself in an unfamiliar place-the bottom of the Big Ten. Going into their toughest match of the season, the Wildcats aren’t letting their record get to them.
“We’re staying positive,” said senior Eric Metzler (133), the only wrestler to go undefeated in last weekend’s dual at No. 4 Ohio State and No. 12 Penn State. “We’re not a bad team, but we’re just young at a lot of weights. And forfeiting the 141-pound weight division doesn’t help.
“The Big Ten is the toughest conference in the country. What we need do is have everyone focus on their match, and if they can get in the mindset, then everyone else will follow through.”
NU (5-10-1, 0-5 Big Ten) heads to Iowa City, Iowa, to face the top-ranked Hawkeyes (19-0, 4-0) Friday having lost its last four to Iowa.
On paper there isn’t much going in favor of a young Cats team-eight of Iowa’s 10 wrestlers are ranked in the top 10 in their weight classes.
“This weekend will be more of a measuring stick,” coach Tim Cysewski said. “It’ll be good to see we can compete with guys. We just want to see good individual performances.”
Even NU’s lone ranked wrestler, junior Andrew Nadhir (149), has his hands full this weekend. Nadhir will go up against Brent Metcalf, the top-ranked 149-pound wrestler in the country and a reigning NCAA champion.
“Nadhir’s in a tough weight class,” Cysewski said. “By the time Big Tens roll around, he’ll have wrestled four of the top five wrestlers in the country.”
Despite a poor dual record-NU is currently tied for last place in the conference-Cysewski said many of his young wrestlers will focus on their individual games to prepare for the Big Ten Tournament.
“We’re at the time of year where it’s inevitable that guys start thinking down the road,” Cysewski said. “The bottom line is, to get to Nationals, you have to go through Big Tens.
There’s pressure to do well at Big Tens, because some kids have bad dual seasons but then do great in the postseason tournaments. Big Tens and Nationals are what people look at.”
Last weekend NU had to deal with an enthusiastic away crowd when it wrestled in front of more than 4,000 fans at Penn State. The Cats will get another sample of an intimidating environment in Iowa. The Hawkeyes are notorious for having one of the most rabid wrestling crowds in the country.
“It’s always fun to wrestle there,” Metzler said. “There’s quality up and down the lineup, but we want to steal some matches in front of the crowd. They can be hostile, but you love to wrestle in front of lots of people either way.”
While Friday night’s dual against the nation’s top team will be daunting, Cysewski and his starting lineup of four freshmen, two sophomores, two juniors and one senior aren’t throwing in the towel.
“We’re so competitive, I’m so competitive, the team’s so competitive-we never like to lose,” Metzler said. “But it’s nice to do well because then it sets us up for a better postseason. We’re going to keep competing. No one’s packing it up yet.”[email protected]
