Wrestling

After a close loss to No. 11 Virginia Tech (3-0) in their first match of the season, No. 21 Northwestern (1-1) bounced back against No. 14 Northern Iowa (0-1) on Sunday at Welsh-Ryan Arena.

The Wildcats started off strong with a 5-1 win in the 125-pound weight class by freshman Michael DeAugustino over UNI senior Jay Schwarm. NU went on to win five of the 10 matches and win by a close four points.

The upset over the Panthers happened in large part to the contributions of junior Sebastian Rivera, junior Ryan Deakin, senior Shayne Oster and freshman Lucas Davison, who scored 21 of the team’s 24 points. Each of the four also earned bonus-point decisions.

Rivera and Deakin — both All Americans last season — also won by major decisions last weekend, despite NU’s 21-18 loss. Against the Panthers, Rivera earned a 13-4 win over sophomore Jack Skudlarczyk in the Cats’ second match, and Deakin’s fall over sophomore Keaton Geerts took NU into intermission with a 13-7 lead.

Following Deakin’s win, Oster scored an unanswered 15 points over UNI sophomore Patrick Schoenfelder to snag the Cats five team points from his technical fall.

An injury default by Northern Iowa’s freshman Noah Glaser against Davison in the second to last match of the night scored NU six more points and bumped them up to the 24 team points that won them their home match of the season.

The Cats will look to make the most of their home-field advantage next Sunday as they take on North Dakota State at home.