NIU v. Northwestern

[Huskie184]

Tonight Northwestern beat NIU 28-10, not a close dual by team score, but their were some tough matches. Castillo loses to Velez in ot, Andy wrestled tough and won, Lang has Wooten's number and got the cradle for the fall, Grimes dominated Lozdoski the whole 7 minutes, Owen wrestled tough the first 20 secs and then never shot again...but he is tough when he shoots, Galloway didnt do much and got put on his back, Danny wrestled tough...had Herbert tired and got a nice confidence takedown, Tamillow wrestled tough on top...controlling the whole match, Hunsinger and Delguyd were at a stalemate until the 3rd ot and then it just ended, and Sapp is my man...I think he has Fox's number

***Overall, not the way we wanted it. Nice turnout was great though and the crowd was into it throughout. Thank you

[NIref]

As a team, NIU got man handled. There were some good matches. There were also some dissapointing matchups. How does a #9 v. #10 end in a stick? NI lost a lot of scrambles. Usually, they are a good team at coming out on top during a scramble.

[Dhodge]

damn i thought it was gonna be 27-10, so close. ^Becasue lang is a bad ***! Is NIU wrestling this weekend??? And hats off to northwestern (not that they should be cellebrating this) they have come a long ways in the past few years. Also hats off to danny burke, i thought he was much more over matched, i didn't see the match but the score would indicate otherwise.

[Gantry]

Here is the recap I put on TheMat:

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Got back from the dual a little while ago and thought I'd share my thoughts. First off, Northwestern is a heck of a team much improved over last year. They really are solid top to bottom, this is a good NIU team they trounced. It was a nicely run event, with the spotlights, music, raised mat and Speaker Hastert in attendence. Not a bad crowd considering the Huskies were playing for the Mac Championship in football and the two top local high school teams having a dual at the same time.

Outside of 149 and 141, all the matches were close and up for grabs. NIU fought really well on their feet but were absolutely dominated in top and bottom wrestling. They couldn't get out when they needed to and I dont' think they got a single nearfall. They also gave up way too many reversals. Regardless, they fought hard in all their matches and none outside of the Lang pin were really blowouts. Kudos to the Huskies despite the big loss, if they improve their mat wrestling they can be a top20 team...

125 - Velez beats Castillo in OT. I told you folks that Castillo is going to make some noise this year at 125, he's a contender for the Mac title. Velez is just a solid wrestler and had an absolutely sick armdrag. I think he got three takedowns from it and Castillo had zero defense against it. Outside of those armdrags though, Castillo looked very good. He couldn't convert on a couple nice shots in the first, got a late TD to tie it, got reversed with about 10 seconds left, then re-reversed Velez to go to OT. But Velez had that armdrag whenever he needed it, still good to see Pat take a top10 guy to OT in his first dual as a varsity starter.

133 - Andy Hiatt beat Quintella 5-3 or so. Andy looks like and wrestles like his brother Sam, who vacated the 133 spot last year. He keeps very solid position, shoots good shots, doesn't make a lot of mistakes and is a good rider (though like Sam, a tough rider but not a lot of back points). He didn't tire at the end and was in control of this match throughout. I think he's fitting into the lower weight class quite nicely.

141 - Ryan Lang pinned Josh Wooten. Wow is all I can say about this one. Lang is a STUD and looks much improved after last year. He took Wooten down within 20 seconds, rode him hard for the rest of the period, reversed Wooten quickly in the second and got a fall. Wooten got semi close to backpoints before Lang reversed him, but outside of that is was all Lang. I hate to say it but he is just like Wooten in every aspect but better - unorthdox on his feet, hard and dangerous rider and absolute spaz on bottom. Wooten has problems with wrestlers with a similar style to him (he always had trouble with Jeff Ratliff), but I don't think this loss will affect him too much. It's more of praise for Lang then anything Wooten really did wrong.

149 - Grimes majored Lozdozki. This was really the only lopsided match of the night. Grimes looked really solid on his feet and did a great job riding Lozdozski. Also wrestled very smart in the 3rd period and cut him at the right times to go for the major. Our best wrestler in the lineup this year, and it showed here.

157 - Hagel beats Owen by 3 or 4. This was a great match and very close throughout. Owen started real strong, getting a nice first period TD in a scramble and looked good. Unfortunately, at least to me, it seemed like after the first Owen was wrestling to protect a lead instead of going after it like I saw at the wrestleoff. A couple times Hagel takes a bad shot and Owen just blocks off instead of attacking the shot. Immediately after the blockoff, Hagel would shoot again and get the TD. On the one that gave Hagel the lead, I think he scored on his 3rd shot in a 10 second span. Owen tried a desperation inside trip late and got taken down. Then, as the theme was all night, he couldn't get out on bottom to get a chance to tie it up. Still a fun match to watch and I think Owen will learn from this one. Hagel impressed me though, solid in all positions.

165 - Durkee pinned Galloway with 2 seconds left. It actually was a very close match throughout until Durkee hit a standing cradle off a Galloway shot with about 15 seconds left and got the pin. The match was 5-4 at the time. Durkee also hit (I think) a similar standing cradle off a really nice Galloway shot for the only other TD of the night. Doubly ironic because Galloway's best move is a standing cradle from neutral. Durkee just doesn't give up a lot of position and is really tough to score on. He was also quite large, much taller than Galloway but didn't seem much thinner. Didn't know much about Durkee, but I was impressed. Not many people get out of a deep Galloway shot in the first period, much less score on it. Like the other Northwestern wrestlers, Durkee was quite solid in all 3 positions and had no weak spots.

174 - Herbert beats Burk 8-4. Man is Herbert huge! The kid is all muscle and quite wide, looks bigger than last year. Herbert rode Danny for much of the match, though Burk kept fighting the whole time. At the end, when Herbert had a comfortable lead, Burk was still attacking and trying to win the match. He had three nice shots on Herbert in the last 90 seconds and finally got a TD at the end. Many people in Burk's shoes against a guy who was winning the battle in all positions would have stalled out to prevent a major, but Burk kept fighting. Herbert is a stud though, I don't see anyone but Perry/Askren getting close to him this year. Burk is a fighter though and wrestles all seven minutes no matter what the score...

184 - Tamillow majored McClone. Another guy for Northwestern who looks huge for the weight, espeically since McClone is a converted 174 pounder. Was low scoring early and McClone did a decent job riding at times, but as throughout the night Northwestern kept getting reversals and NIU couldn't get out when they needed a point late in the period.

197 - Delguyd beats Hunsinger in OT3 or whatever - Hunsinger took about 20 shots in the first two periods getting a stall point, though most all of them weren't close to scoring. Delguyd has good position throughout and became agressive late in the 3rd when he lost a stall point, prompting a stall point of his own. No score in OT1 though by this time Delguyd found a shot he could get deep on. Hunsinger fought it 2-3 times but after the rideout periods, Delguyd finally got it for a TD. Hunsinger was the more tired wrestler, which shocked the heck out of me. Still a fun match to watch and the crowd was into it. When Hunsinger gets fully back into shape after that broken orbital socket last year, I think he can wrestle some of the MAC bigwigs (Cerminera, Michalek) pretty tough...

HWT - Joe Sapp defeats Dustin Fox 3-1. When Fox was warming up he was wearing a Bauhaus shirt, making me like him right away. A ton of handfighting throughout and Fox had a coulpe good shots that Sapp fought off. Very late in the third Fox shot and Sapp was ready for it, spun around for a takedown. It was a nice way to end the night, as Sapp was pumped and the crowd loved it.

All in all a great dual to watch. Northwestern is goign to beat a lot of teams this year and Durkee probably impressed me the most based on what I knew going in. I think it's a good learning dual for NIU, as they definitely found some weaknesses to work on, yet competed in just about every match.

[Conquistadors]

Gantry,

Thanks for your excellent summary.