Dec. 14, 2007
DeKALB, Ill. - Coming off an upset win over No. 5 Northwestern, the Northern Illinois wrestling team hits the mats for the first time in two weeks Saturday at 1:05 p.m. to face Augustana (Ill.) at Victor E. Court.
"We've been staying focused, which can be tough at this time of year," NIU head coach Dave Grant said. "We've had a lot of time to watch tape and clean-up some things that we've needed to work on."
For the Huskies (2-3), the match-up with the Vikings will be the last dual meet before opening Mid-American Conference competition against Buffalo, Jan. 12. The Huskies will participate at Midlands and the "Flash" Flanagan Open prior to starting conference action,
The Vikings are coming off of a 32-9 loss to North Central, Dec. 12. in which they captured wins in only two of the 10 weight classes. Junior Brian Kerr improved his record to 6-5 with a pin just 31 seconds into his match. Sophomore Viking George Gogonas, Augustana's wins-leader with nine, also earned a win with a 5-2 decision.
In the Huskies' landmark win over Northwestern, senior Pat Castillo (Western Springs, Ill./Lyons Township), along with sophomore Duke Burk (Peoria, Ill./Notre Dame) and freshman Jake Smith (Bennington, Neb./Bennington) all took wins against the Wildcats. Eleventh-ranked Castillo will try to improve his 6-3 record, and should feel confident considering his only losses are to top-10 133-pounders. Smith has picked-up steam, recently. Since starting the season 1-4, Smith has won three of his last four matches to move to 4-5 on the season.
"We're wrestling with almost half our team as freshman, learning on the run," said Grant, referring to the six freshman or redshirt freshman who have competed in dual contests this season for the Huskies. "Some of these guys are just a couple months out of high school, and they're competing very well."
Northern Illinois wrestled a tough early schedule with losses against No. 3 Iowa State and No. 1 Minnesota, but can climb back to .500 with a win Saturday. Grant's teams have recorded winning records for seven-consecutive seasons, the longest streak of plus-.500 seasons since Don Flavin put together 12-straight winning teams from 1971-83.
After Augustana, the Huskies will take two weeks away from competition before heading to the 2007 Midlands Wrestling Championships in Evanston, Ill., Dec. 29-30.
