Northwestern had a weekend to forget, dropping a Friday dual at No. 10 Michigan 38-4 before giving up two pins in a 22-20 loss to Michigan State Sunday.
No. 24 redshirt senior 133-pounder Sean Spidle got the Wildcats (3-6, 1-5 Big Ten) started on the right foot with an 8-0 major decision shutout of the Wolverines’ (8-3, 4-1 Big Ten) Gauge Botero. But it was the only NU win in any of the 10 bouts.
Then, the ’Cats traveled to East Lansing looking to rebound against the Spartans (4-6, 1-4 Big Ten). Even though both teams won five matches, pins by Michigan State heavyweight Josh Terrill and 149-pounder Clayton Jones provided 12 team points in just two matches, a swing that NU could not match.
Freshman 197-pounder Alex Smith stopped himself from getting pinned for the sixth straight dual, even scoring a late reversal on the Spartans’ No. 23 Kael Wisler to hold Michigan State to three team points from a 10-3 win, as opposed to four team points for an eight-point win.
It was instead Terrill’s cow-catcher hold on graduate student heavyweight Gabe Christenson that put a Wildcat’s shoulder blades to the mat for the first time that afternoon. Michigan State coach Roger Chandler’s decision to start the dual meet with the 197-pound bout paid off, as the hosts took a 9-0 team lead going into the lightweights.
No. 23 redshirt sophomore 125-pounder Dedrick Navarro split a pair of low-scoring matches over the weekend. An escape and the riding time point for Michigan’s No. 24 Diego Sotelo proved to be the difference in a 2-0 decision on Friday. Navarro looked like he might go 0-2 on the road trip as the Spartans’ Nick Corday held him down firmly throughout the second period of his Sunday match, racking up well over the one minute of riding time necessary to secure the point.
But with time ticking down, Navarro pried himself out of his opponent’s bind, turned and grabbed Corday’s ankles to score a critical reversal. His 2-1 decision victory put the ’Cats on the board.
No. 31 freshman 141-pounder Billy Dekraker cut deep into the team score deficit with NU’s first pin in a dual meet this season. With the near-fall points necessary for a technical fall win secured in the third period and Michigan State’s Jace Morgan lying on one shoulder blade, Dekraker pressed Morgan every way he could until he got the other shoulder blade to fall.
Jones’ pin over redshirt freshman 149-pounder August Hibler threw the ’Cats right back into a nine-point hole. Spartan 157-pounder Darius Marines’ major decision victory against redshirt freshman Gunnar Myers forced NU to find 13 team points in three matches, a deficit that ultimately proved to be insurmountable.
The visitors took the last three matches, but without any technical falls or pins, they did not score enough bonus points to mount a comeback. Redshirt sophomore 165-pounder Jacob Bostelman ducked under Michigan State’s Jack Conley for a winning two-legged takedown in the last 10 seconds of his bout, and No. 30 redshirt freshman 174-pounder Eddie Enright and graduate student 184-pounder J.D. Perez both won by major decision.
NU will go from the Great Lakes to the Great Plains for a date with No. 6 Nebraska on Sunday.
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