Aaron Jones broke his five-game losing streak in a big way Friday night.
The senior won his 184-pound match against No. 7 A.J. Kissel in convincing 6-1 fashion, controlling the match from start to finish and notching takedowns late in the first two periods.
Jones’ win was one of No. 17 Northwestern’s three victories at the upper five weight classes in their 32-6 victory over No. 24 Purdue.
“A win like this immediately puts you in a spot to be a viable NCAA qualifier,” coach Drew Pariano said of Jones’ win. “(Our gameplan was) to control every position. I think (Kissel) touched our leg twice and we got a little nervous, but Aaron reacted perfectly each time. He was never in danger of losing this match.”
Jones said he is happy to finally get a victory under his belt, but that he didn’t do a whole lot differently Friday than he has in previous matches.
“It felt really good,” Jones said. “I started the year strong and I thought I was wrestling well, I was just losing matches.”
The Boilermakers (6-7-1, 1-3 Big Ten) are strongest in their heavier weight divisions, putting pressure on the the Wildcats’ (16-2, 4-2) lower five divisions to pick up much-needed bonus points – something they did to perfection.
“Knowing we could split five-five, we knew we needed bonus points,” sophomore Levi Mele (133) said.
The Cats led 26-0 at the break with all first four wrestlers in positions to get pins. Mele and freshman Kaleb Freidley (141) were the only NU wrestlers who successfully accomplished the task.
Mele’s match really turned around towards the end of the first period. He was able to get a takedown with about 30 seconds left in the period before ending the match with his fifth pin of the year.
“Right off the bat I knew I needed to get after him,” Mele said. “Once he got after my ankles and we got into a scramble, I figured why not end it here. I was expecting a good hard match and I just wanted to win every position.”
Friedley followed Mele’s big pin with a pin of his own just 93 seconds into the match. Friedley started the pin with a bit of bad luck, losing his shoe in a scramble before getting a takedown. After getting two points for nearly pinning Jake Fleckenstein, Friedley was able to turn Fleckenstein and finally get the pin.
“Those were both must-have matches,” Pariano said. “Any time a freshman can go out and get a pin like Friedley did today … is huge.”
Redshirt senior Brandon Precin got an early takedown which put him in a position to pin Camden Eppert, but he was unable to convert. Precin finally did get Eppert into a position in which he could finish the pin, but Precin ran out of time in the match and only scored NU four points with his 11-0 victory.
Nadhir started off his match slow, but gradually picked up the pace with two takedowns in the last minute of the first period to fully take control of the match. In the third period, Nadhir dominated as he got two more takedowns before nearly pinning Purdue’s Sam Patacsil with 50 seconds left in the match. The points that Nadhir notched for his near-fall helped him secure the 15-4 victory and give the Cats the decisive momentum.
Redshirt sophomore Jason Welch won a hard-fought 4-1 match at 157-pounds and sophomore Kevin Bialka (157) started the second half with another tough 5-4 victory for the Cats. The Boilermakers finally got on the board at the 174-pound matchup as NU’s redshirt junior Brian Roddy lost 7-3.
Jones’ big upset in the second half was followed by John Schoen’s loss at 197 pounds. The redshirt junior struggled all match to score points on No. 9 Logan Brown and ended up losing 8-1.
“I think if John got the takedown early then you see a different arm being raised there at the end,” Pariano said.
NU will need another big team effort next Friday when it hosts No. 6 Wisconsin.
“If everyone takes care of their own match and takes advantage of their opportunities, then everything will take care of itself,” Friedley said. “There are 10 of us and you can’t wrestle every match. You just need to wrestle your match.”
