Brandon Precin has maintained a workman-like demeanor throughout his two All-American seasons and two Midlands Championships titles.
During his final regular season match at Welsh-Ryan Arena on Friday night, the redshirt senior broke out of that mindset. Following his pin, which occurred 80 seconds into his match with Wisconsin’s Tom Kelliher, Precin (125) shot up off the mat.
“It meant a lot to me,” Precin said. “It’s feels great to go out in my last home dual on a pin. Normally I don’t get too excited during matches, but tonight I ended up jumping up and pointing to my family.”
Precin and seniors Andrew Nadhir and Aaron Jones all won clutch matches as No. 16 NU (17-2, 5-2 Big Ten) knocked off No. 12 Wisconsin (9-5-1, 0-4-1) 25-13and celebrated its senior night in a match that was guest-coached by a star of NU’s football team, junior quarterback Dan Persa.
“It (is) just huge,” coach Drew Pariano said. “That’s how to honor your seniors. Brandon did a great job in his match, and Andrew’s victory was huge.”
Nadhir (149 lb. weight class) won a hard-fought 8-4 match against No. 8 Cole Schmitt. After picking up a takedown at the end of the first period, Nadhir started the second with an escape. Schmitt managed to tie up the score in the second period, setting up an exciting finish. Nadhir evaded a Schmitt takedown attempt and managed a takedown of his own to seal the victory.
“I knew he was going to try and slow me down,” Nadhir said. “I wanted to go out as a winner in my last home dual. It’s my home turf and it’s my senior night, not his.”
Nadhir lost to Schmitt in their only previous meeting at the Midlands Championships in December. Pariano said that the victory had a lot of implications for NU’s end-of-season hopes.
“That win took us from a four-seed at Big Tens to possibly looking at a two-seed,” Pariano said.
Jones was the third and final senior to win, winning his 184-pound match against an undersized Ben Cox. Jones won the match 6-0, but his dominance went way beyond the final score: Jones amassed more than three minutes of riding time for being in an offensive position
“It’s more than the final score,” Pariano said. “It’s the way you wrestle, and Aaron did a great job wrestling his match tonight.”
The dual started at 197 pounds as redshirt junior John Schoen was dominated in his 14-5 loss. Redshirt junior Ben Kuhar followed up that performance with a 9-3 loss in the heavyweight match.
“It was the ideal start for them,” Pariano said. “Wrestling is wrestling, and we need to be able to overcome that.”
Sophomore Levi Mele (133 lb. weight class) put up a good fight in his match but ended up on the wrong end of a 10-5 decision.
Kaleb Friedley continued his successful freshman campaign with an 11-3 major decision. Friedley dominated his match from the opening whistle, getting a takedown 14 seconds in and then riding out the remainder of the first period. He continued his domination in the second with a reversal and then scored bonus points in the third period courtesy of two takedowns within 15 seconds.
Jason Welch also had a dominating performance in his 157-pound match. The redshirt sophomore picked up a takedown and then earned near-fall points at the end of the first period. After a scoreless second period, Welch got off to a quick start in the third with a takedown and pin in the first 40 seconds to win the match.
At 165 pounds, sophomore Kevin Bialka muscled his way to an 8-3 victory over Wisconsin’s Shawn Perry. Both wrestlers picked up a takedown and an escape in a very active opening three minutes. But Bialka took control of the match at the start of the second period with a takedown, which boosted his riding time advantage. Another Bialka takedown to start the third period sealed Perry’s fate as he rode out the match and recorded three points for NU.
Brian Roddy was unable to sustain his early energy in his 174-pound match, losing 9-3. The redshirt sophomore started the match with a takedown, but Pariano said a momentary lapse in the second period cost Roddy the match.
“Brian knows he can wrestle better than that,” Pariano said. “He lost focus for a second in the second period, and he was never able to recover.”
It’s a performance Roddy will look to improve upon when the Cats end their dual meet season in Columbus on Saturday against Ohio State.
