No one said conference bouts would be easy for the Northwestern Wildcats.
After pulling off an impressive 27-12 win in their Big Ten opener against Maryland on Jan. 9, the Wildcats came careening down to earth, falling 28-12 to No. 18 Wisconsin Friday before getting shut out 51-0 Sunday against top-ranked Penn State. Now sitting at 1-2 in Big Ten play and 3-3 in duals overall, the Wildcats must find a way to bounce back before hosting Rutgers on Jan. 23.
Here’s how it all went down.
Northwestern 12, Wisconsin 28 (Jan. 16)
Things started out
rough for NU in this one, as the dual began with a 197-pound bout between No. 28 Wyatt Ingham and NU true-first year Alex Smith. Ingham quickly pinned Smith just 1:56 into the match, and No. 9 Braxton Amos took down Gabe Christenson by major decision in the heavyweight match to give the Badgers a quick 10-0 lead.
As the teams reset to 125, the ‘Cats managed to reset as well. No. 26 Dedrick Navarro — coming off a 5-2 decision win against Maryland’s Presden Sanchez — eked out an impressive upset victory over No. 11 Nicolar Rivera of Wisconsin, securing a 6-5 decision after a clutch late takedown. Badger No. 13 Zan Fugitt handled No. 24 Sean Spidle with the second fall of the evening for Wisconsin, but Wildcat No. 32 Billy Dekraker responded with a 5-4 decision win over Carson Exferd, putting the ‘Cats at a 16-6 deficit.
From there, however, the matches quickly fell out of hand. No. 16 Joseph Zargo, No. 26 Luke Mechler and No. 26 Cody Goebel took down three unranked Wildcats in August Hibler, Gunnar Myers and Jacob Bostelman, respectively.
Zargo won by decision, Mechler by MD and Goebel by technical fall, putting Wisconsin easily ahead 28-6. Decision wins from No. 32 Eddie Enright and J.D. Perez helped to soften the blows against two unranked Badger wrestlers, but by then, it was a lost cause, and Wisconsin comfortably exited with a 28-12 victory at home.
Penn State 51, Northwestern 0
Penn State’s wrestling dominance, put simply, is absurd. The Nittany Lions have won a staggering 80 duals in a row, and this season, they have a perfect 9-0 record while having outscored their opponents 217-3 in their last five dual meets (including a 32-3 stomping of No. 4 Iowa).
PSU wrestling might be the most dominant team in any college sport at the moment. Their lowest-ranked wrestler on Sunday was at No. 13 (with all nine others in the top seven and eight in the top four), while Spidle is NU’s highest-ranked wrestler at No. 24. Even in a sport where upsets can occur, Northwestern was essentially destined to lose on Sunday.
Unsurprisingly, the Wildcats could not pick up a point off the fearsome Nittany Lions. PSU No. 1 Levi Haines started off with a technical fall win over Enright in the 174-pound bout, and No. 4 Rocco Welsh added a tech fall over Perez at 184. After Smith was quickly pinned in 1:50 by No. 1 Josh Barr, No. 13 Cole Mirasola handed Christenson a tech fall defeat of his own in 2:47, putting Penn State up 21-0 in a flash.
At 125, the previously-red-hot Navarro could not survive the onslaught from No. 2 Luke Lilledahl, who took down his counterpart via a seven-minute tech fall 20-5. From there, the ‘Cats settled down a little bit, with Spidle and Dekraker only taking major decision losses at the hands of No. 4 Marcus Blaze and No. 7 Braeden Davis. Still, after seven bouts, Penn State led 34-0.
There wasn’t much improvement in the remaining three contests. Top-ranked Shayne Van Ness handled Hibler 18-3 via tech fall, and No. 3 PJ Duke secured a pin in 2:42 against Myers. Against No. 1 Mitchell Mesenbrink, the ‘Cats simply took a forfeit, giving six more points to Penn State to secure a 51-0 Nittany Lion victory.
A No. 17 Rutgers squad sitting at 1-2 in the Big Ten should be a much more even matchup for the ‘Cats. Still, the Scarlet Knights are coming off a commanding 24-9 victory over Purdue, and they’ll certainly be hungry to keep the winning going. NU will have to find a way to seize control early against Rutgers in a match taking place at Welsh-Ryan Arena on Jan. 23 at 7 p.m. CST.
