Three Northwestern underclassmen won their bouts, but No. 8 Minnesota steamrolled to a convincing 29-12 win Sunday afternoon.
The meet kicked off with the back half of the lineup, where the Wildcats (2-5, 0-4 Big Ten) struggled against five nationally ranked Golden Gophers. No. 12 redshirt junior 197-pounder Evan Bates was NU’s only wrestler to score a takedown in the half, but he lost 10-3 to Minnesota’s No. 9 Isaiah Salazar.
With Minnesota resting two regular starters in the second half, redshirt freshman 125-pounder Dedrick Navarro gave the ’Cats a spark with a pin over Minnesota’s Quincy Hulverson. After his third straight dual win, Navarro said he still has improvements to make as the season progresses.
“It’s getting to crunch time,” he said. “I’m just trying to improve as much as I can in this little amount of time we’ve got.”
Sophomore 133-pounder Massey Odiotti secured his second consecutive dual win, a 14-7 decision win over Minnesota’s Blake Beissel. After an early takedown by Beissel, Odiotti answered with two of his own. Up 8-5 entering the third period, Odiotti sealed the win with a pair of takedowns in the final 40 seconds.
No. 27 graduate student 141-pounder Chris Cannon wrestled with a shoulder brace to prevent him from suffering what could have been a third upper body injury in two weeks. However, an ankle injury in the second period appeared to limit his mobility. Trailing 4-0 to Minnesota’s No. 8 Vance VomBaur at the time, Cannon couldn’t keep pace as four VomBaur takedowns in the third period put a winning result out of reach.
No. 24 redshirt freshman 149-pounder Sam Cartella came out on top of an even matchup against Minnesota’s No. 23 Drew Roberts. After a scrappy 4-5 overtime loss to Michigan’s No. 22 Dylan Gilcher, Cartella rebounded with a 6-3 win over Roberts.
“I gassed out in the Michigan match,” Cartella said. “I worked on some conditioning this week and focused on managing my weight better, and then hydrating better after weigh-ins.”
In perhaps the most anticipated matchup of the afternoon, No. 9 graduate student 157-pounder Trevor Chumbley fumbled a late lead against Minnesota’s No. 8 Tommy Askey for a 3-2 loss. Electing to start the second period in control, Chumbley refused to let Askey escape for the entire period, then escaped within seconds to start the third period. Askey chased a takedown for the rest of the bout, putting Chumbley on the back foot. With 30 seconds left, Askey grabbed hold of Chumbley’s right leg and flipped him over, scoring a takedown to record a win.
Now halfway through the Big Ten schedule and still without a conference win, NU coach Matt Storniolo said small adjustments separate the ’Cats from the elite.
“The best guys know where they’re good, they know how to force their wrestling to those positions and they capitalize on it,” he said. “We need to put the wrestling where we want it to be and not just be a passenger in the seat for where the other guy is going to take us.”
NU will go on the road to face No. 24 Indiana Saturday before hosting Michigan State the following Friday. Storniolo said he expects to win both.
“We’ve got most of the really tough ones out of the way now,” Storniolo said. “We’ve got a couple matches where I expect us to go in there and get it done as a team.”
Email: siddarthsivaraman2028@u.northwestern.edu
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