No. 21 Northwestern continued its up-and-down season Sunday, splitting two nonconference duals against SIU-Edwardsville and Northern Iowa.
The Wildcats (5-5) fell in the day’s first match 21-13 against Northern Iowa (5-2) before bouncing back to a 39-12 win against host school SIUE (3-10).
Redshirt senior Jason Welch stood out for NU, notching his 100th and 101st career wins on the day.
Welch earned 100 against UNI’s David Bonin in a controlling 8-3 win. He followed that up with a dominant 17-0 tech fall win against SIUE’s Kyle Lowman. The wins pushed the All-American’s career record to 101-20.
Joining Welch in the winner’s circle two times were three underclassmen, redshirt sophomores Pierce Harger, Alex Polizzi and Lee Munster. Harger was especially impressive, scoring bonus points in each of his wins, one via major decision and the other by a pin.But several Cats also struggled.
No one outside of the double-victorious foursome won a match against Northern Iowa, and true freshman Dominick Malone was upset by an unranked opponent at 125 pounds.
NU also continued to battle with injuries.
True freshman Garrison White, who officially took over for redshirt senior Levi Mele at 133 pounds, went 1-1 on Sunday. Mele’s career ended earlier in the week when he announced he needed surgery to repair torn ligaments in his knee.
Redshirt sophomore Mike McMullan also sat out with an injury, propelling true freshman Jacob Berkowitz in his place at heavyweight. Berkowitz, undersized at heavyweight, lost both his matches, competing at heavyweight against UNI and at 184 pounds against SIUE. The Cats forfeited at heavyweight in their second dual.
